Overview of ongoing work on FADs

Drifting Fish Aggregating Devices (dFADs) are used in large numbers in the Western and Central Pacific
Ocean (WCPO), and their potential impacts in a number of areas are of growing concern. This paper summarises the work from several dFAD-related projects, including: i) a regional database on beached and lost dFADs; ii) updated estimates on the number of dFADs deployed annually in the WCPO and the number of active buoys monitored per vessel; and iii) a Pacific-wide project to define guidelines to reduce the impact of lost and abandoned dFADs on marine turtles.

We invite WCPFC-SC17 to:
- Note the progress made on the different dFAD related projects in the WCPO, to better
understand dFAD use and limit related ecosystem impacts.
- Note the development and progress of in-country data collection programmes on beached
and lost dFADs nearshore, as well as establishment of a regional database.
- Encourage the extension of the country data collection programme on beached and lost
dFADs to other members of WCPFC.
- Note the findings that most vessels in the WCPO deployed less than 150 dFADs per year and
very few vessels deployed/redeployed more than 350 dFADs per year. The current limit for
the number active buoys an individual vessel can have at any one time is 350 under CMM-
2018-01 (paragraph 23). Most vessels actively monitored about 75 buoys at any time. These
results indicate that this measure is not constraining dFAD deployments or buoy monitoring.
- Note the estimates of 30,000–40,000 dFADs deployed/redeployed per year in the WCPO.
- Note the objectives of a Pacific-wide project to define guidelines and conservation
recommendations to reduce the ecological impacts due to lost and abandoned dFADs on sea
turtles.
- Note that there are a number of other interesting avenues of investigation regarding dFAD
use that may be of interest if funding can be obtained.