During GRID-Arendal’s last mission to the Seychelles as a part of our FishGuard initiative, a local fisherman told us about the serious problems caused by fish aggregating devices, called FADs for short.
FADs are objects that purse seine fishers place on the surface of the ocean to attract tuna, but they attract other fish and marine life as well. When fishing boats encircle the FADs with massive nets, large quantities of fish and animals other than tuna are caught as bycatch and thrown back into the sea dead. The amount of bycatch caught around floating objects like FADs can be 2.8 to 6.7 times higher than the amount of bycatch caught when fishing on free-swimming schools. The use of FADs in tuna fishing has increased dramatically in the Indian Ocean in recent decades. One report estimated that European Union-flagged vessels deployed between 10,500 and 14,500 FADs in 2013, and that is just one part of the picture since other fleets also deploy FADs in the region.
Keith André, Chairman of the Fishermen and Boat Owners Association (FBOA), explained how FADs are harming the traditional fishing industry in his country:
While the FishGuard initiative is targeting illegal fishing, that is certainly not the only challenge facing the fishing communities of the Indian Ocean. From the viewpoint of the FBOA, FADs are not adequately monitored or managed in the Indian Ocean, and their widespread use by international industrial fishing boats is undermining the traditional and sustainable fishing practices of local fishermen in the Seychelles. Andrew believes his son will not be able to follow in his footsteps as a fisherman unless the current situation drastically improves.
The government of the Seychelles is aware of this issue, and in an effort to improve the sustainability of tuna fisheries, it recently got approval for four amendments to the resolutions of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission. One of these was directed at improving the management of FADs. Another called for FADs to be made mainly out of biodegradable materials by 2022.
The Organization of Associated Producers of Large Freezer Tuna Freezers, which represents a large Spanish tuna fleet, has also taken steps to address the problems posed by FADs. In 2016, it launched a programme called FAD Watch that aims to track FADs and prevent their use in environmentally sensitive areas.
Although FADs can be environmentally harmful, it is still not known exactly how harmful they are or if their use can be a part of sustainable fishing practices. However, serious concerns about the use of FADs should motivate policymakers to effectively regulate them before it is too late.
© 2026 GRID-Arendal
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