To promote universal adoption of non-entangling, bio-FADs in tuna fisheries, we engage with skippers, vessel owners, and other sustainable-fishing stakeholders.

Our outreach to fishers includes hands-on workshops at major ports with ISSF scientists, conceptualizing bio-FAD designs and discussing FAD management challenges and solutions. We have created videos highlighting some of these workshops and published reports about them. We also offer educational videos, guidebooks, posters, and other resources for skippers.

Through ISSF publications and events, we also share bio-FAD research findings and policy recommendations with RFMOs and other fisheries managers.

ISSF has been testing various organic materials and designs for biodegradable FADs, which can help to reduce marine debris and beaching as well as ghost fishing.

We have researched biodegradable materials for FAD rafts and ropes, for example, that can meet fishers’ needs but are less harmful in the ocean than man-made materials. 

With input from workshop participants, our scientists also have identified modifications to FAD structures and size that may further reduce their ecosystem impacts.

Physical oceanographers also collaborated with us on a new type of bio-FAD — the jelly-FAD. We believe the jelly-FAD design is the most sustainable FAD to date.

New bio-FAD designs are scientifically tested and validated before they can be recommended to tuna fleets for adoption.

ISSF has conducted scientific trials of bio-FAD prototypes under controlled as well as real fishing conditions. We have deployed bio-FADs around the world — in cooperation with commercial fishing fleets and partner organizations — to evaluate the performance of different FAD structures and organic materials.

Fleets in three tropical oceans have tested bio-FAD designs and collecting data from these experiments for scientific analysis.