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All tRFMOs now apply a suite of management measures to mitigate stock and ecosystem impacts
resulting from the use of drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs). All but the IOTC have a regionwide
dFAD closure period in place, and wherever sufficient data is available these are proving to have a
positive impact upon stock conditions. The success of FAD closures comes results largely from
mitigating the growth overfishing driven by large proportions of dFAD catch of yellowfin and bigeye
tunas being juveniles. A suite of measures is required to achieve sustainable management though, so
based on experiences and results from other tRFMOs we suggest that the IOTC implements the
following management measures as a matter of priority:
1. Apply an oceanwide dFAD closure period of at least 3 months during peak period(s) of juvenile
yellowfin tuna catch, covering all purse seine vessels and paired with a 15 day period before
the closure in which dFAD deployments are prohibited and any dFADs fished should be
retained by the responsible vessel to minimize the likelihood of dFAD loss during the closure
period.
2. Implement a dFAD Register in which each dFAD is associated to a single purse seine vessel
before deployment, which is responsible for that device throughout its lifecycle.
3. Ensure third party monitoring of dFAD use and verification of information entered into the dFAD
Register while ensuring all that information is made publicly available on the IOTC website,
similar to how the IOTC Vessel Register and IUU vessel list are maintained to promote
monitoring and accountability of vessels.
4. Apply the precautionary approach when implementing new, or refining current, dFAD
management measures, as is the norm when data is lacking to inform science-based
management.
5. Immediately prohibit the deployment of any dFADs that are not fully biodegradable (except the
operational buoy) and of fully non-entangling designs with no netting or other meshed materials.
Before activation and deployment of each dFAD, its designs alignment with this regulation
should be confirmed by an onboard observer, and a resultant photograph of that dFAD prior to
deployment should be added to the dFAD Register to enable compliance monitoring from
recovered or beached dFADs.
6. Require dFAD components to be labeled according, at minimum, to the requirements submitted
by Kenya in Resolution 22/XX, so lost or abandoned dFADs can be reunited with the vessel
responsible for them without any data confidentiality barriers.
7. Require purse seine fleets using dFADs to evidence compliance with international marine
pollution laws (e.g. MARPOL V and London Convention) and to make public all data received
from their dFAD operational buoys to enable sustainable fisheries management guiding
research and compliance monitoring.
8. Apply precautionary limits explicitly on the number of dFADs that can be deployed per vessel,
while declining suggestions to only limit how many “active” FADs can be “followed at any one
time”, or how many “FAD Sets” can be made. Without explicitly limiting dFAD deployments and
designs the impacts of both active and abandoned dFADs will not be suitably mitigated. The
Joint tRFMO FAD Working Group previously noted that current FAD limits are the results of
negotiations and fundamentally arbitrary in respect of data input1, so lacking data should no
longer delay management improvements.
