Review of the statistical data on FADs

The overarching objective of this paper is to provide participants at the 2nd Working Group on FADs (WGFAD02) with a review of the data and information on FADs and FAD-related fisheries as available in the IOTC databases as of October 2021. The document summarises data on fishing capacity, fishing effort, and catches for the species caught with purse seine in association with drifting floating objects for the period 1950-2020, as well as data sets providing information on FAD-related activities (e.g., deployments, retrievals, etc.) and spatio-temporal distribution of floating objects across the Indian Ocean.