Workshop on the Use of Biodegradable Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs)

A workshop on the use of biodegradable FADs, or FADs made with natural materials, was organized by ISSF the 3rd and 4th of November of 2016 in the Aquarium of San Sebastian (Spain). This workshop was organized in order to propose solutions to reduce the amount of plastic and other non-natural materials used in FADs to avoid pollution of the oceans when FADs sink or beach in coastal areas. A recent research conducted in the Indian Ocean, using information from the trajectories of the buoys utilized to geo-locate FADs, showed that 10% of the deployed FADs ended up in stranding events (Maufroy et al 2015)1. Nowadays FADs are made using as main components petroleum products as plastic, PVC, nylon nets, etc., that degrade slowly, causing a growing accumulation of these products in coastal areas year on year. The impacts associated to FAD beaching events are damages in coral reefs, marine pollution as well as ghost fishing.