Review of data on Fish Aggregating Devices

IOTC Resolution 15/09 was adopted in 2015 to create a scientific forum aiming at assessing the consequences of the increasing number and technological developments of fish aggregating devices (FADs) in tuna fisheries and their ecosystems, in order to inform and advise on future FAD-related management options. The first session of the IOTC ad hoc Working Group on FADs (WGFAD01) was held in Madrid, Spain on 18 April 2017 (IOTC 2017). The overarching objective of this paper is to provide participants to the 3rd Working Group on FADs (WGFAD03) with a review of the data and information on FADs and FAD-related fisheries as available in the IOTC databases as of September 2022. The document summarises data on fishing capacity, fishing effort, and catches for the species caught with purse seine in association with drifting floating objects (FOBs) for the period 1950-2021, as well as data sets providing information on FAD-related activities (e.g., deployments, retrievals, etc.) and spatio-temporal distribution of FOBs across the Indian Ocean.