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World tuna catches reached 5.2 million metric tons in 2018, more
than doubling since the early 1990s, primarily due to the introduction
of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs). The widespread use of drifting
FADs has increased the economic efficiency of the fleet by
making it easier to aggregate and locate tuna schools, but at a high
ecological cost, including: significant catches of juvenile tunas;
bycatch of endangered, threatened and protected species; and
“ghost fishing,” marine pollution, and sensitive habitat destruction
by abandoned FADs. Recent analysis indicates that most deployed
FADs are eventually lost, stolen, beached, or abandoned, continuing
their destructive impacts. This paper examines the legal regime, market
forces, and other factors that frame FAD use. We demonstrate
that, because deployed FADs are legally considered to be fishing,
when they drift into closed areas or otherwise contravene national
or international agreements or regulations, they are Illegal,
Unreported, and/or Unregulated (IUU); vessels using such FADs are
therefore IUU. We suggest that introducing a transparent FAD ownership
tracking system and requiring FAD owners to mitigate their
impacts could substantially improve the effectiveness of tuna
Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) and redirect
market incentives to properly support tuna management.
