Catch, Effort and ECOsystem impacts of FAD-fishing (CECOFAD)

The objective of the European Research project “Catch, Effort, and eCOsystem impacts of FAD-fishing” (CECOFAD) is to improve our understanding of the use of fish-aggregating devices (FAD) in tropical purse seine tuna fisheries on open-sea ecosystems. Due to the relevance of accurate indices of abundance derived from catch per unit of effort, the project will attempt to define a unit of fishing effort for FAD-fishing and to provide reliable estimates of abundance indices and accurate indicators on the impact of FAD-fishing on juveniles of bigeye and yellowfin tunas and on bycatch species. Because science-industry partnerships can improve the quality and availability of data and knowledge, the project research is fostering collaborative research between operators and scientists, without compromising the independence of the latter. CECOFAD is co-funded by EU-DG Mare, 3 scientific institutes (IRD, IEO and AZTI) and 3 professional tuna owner company associations (ANABAC, OPAGAC and ORTHONGEL).