Relevant sections include (but are not exclusive to):
Non-entangling and biodegradable FADs
17. To reduce the entanglement of sharks, marine turtles or any other species, CPCs shall require their flagged vessels to use non-entangling designs and materials in the construction of FADs as outlined in Annex V.
18. To reduce the amount of synthetic marine debris, the use of natural or biodegradable materials in FAD construction should be promoted. CPCs shall encourage their flag vessels to use biodegradable FADs in accordance with the guidelines at Annex V with a view to transitioning to the use of biodegradable FADs, with the exception of materials used for the instrumented buoys, by their flag vessel from 1 January 2022. CPCs shall, from 1 January 2022, encourage their flag vessels to remove from the water, retain onboard and only dispose of in port, all traditional FADs encountered (e.g. those made of entangling materials or designs). The reference year prescribed above shall be reviewed in light of the Scientific Committee’s recommendation pursuant to Resolution 18/04 On BioFAD experimental project.
19. CPCs are encouraged to conduct trials using biodegradable materials to facilitate the transition to the use of only biodegradable material for DFADS construction by their flagged vessels. The results of such trials shall be presented to the Scientific Committee who shall continue to review research results on the use of biodegradable material on FADs and shall provide specific recommendations to the Commission as appropriate.
ALDFG
14. The Management Plans shall include initiatives or surveys to investigate, and to the extent possible minimise the capture of small bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna and non-target species associated with fishing on FADs. Management Plans shall also include guidelines to prevent, to the extent possible, the loss or abandonment of FADs.
25. The Commission shall establish a DFAD tracking and recovery policy at its annual session in 2021, on the basis of recommendations from the ad-hoc FAD working group. The policy shall define DFAD tracking, reporting of lost DFADs, arrangements to alert coastal States of derelict/lost DFADs at risk of beaching in near real-time, how and who recovers the DFADs, how the recovery costs are collected and shared.