Floating-Object Fishery Indicators: a 2021 Report

The importance of monitoring the FAD fishery as a whole has widely been claimed by scientists, managers and other stakeholders. Based on the recommendations and guidelines of the joint technical Working Group on FADs (Lopez 2019), as well as the repeated requests by some member countries on the production of specific data and analyses (e.g. IATTC-93 INF-A), this document compiles a comprehensive series of spatial and temporal indicators for the floating-object fishery in the EPO with the aim to better monitor and assess its potential impacts in the short, medium and long term. The indicators have been grouped into 8 categories: catch and effort, activities on FADs, satellite buoy-based indices, capacity, technology, ecosystem impacts, socio-economic, and biology, ecology and behavior indicators. This document will also serve to identify and shape data collection and reporting needs on FADs and prioritize future actions for conservation and management of target and non-target species.