Fish aggregation device (FAD) research: gaps in current knowledge and future directions for ecological studies

Type Article
Date 2004-03
Language English
Author(s) Dempster Tim, Taquet Marc
Affiliation(s) Univ Sydney, Sch Biol Sci, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
IFREMER, Lab Ressources Halieut, Le Port 97822, Reunion.
Univ Perpignan, Ecole Prat Hautes Etud, CNRS, URA 1453, F-66860 Perpignan, France.
Source Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries (0960-3166) (Kluwer), 2004-03 , Vol. 14 , N. 1 , P. 21-42
DOI 10.1007/s11160-004-3151-x
WOS© Times Cited 135
Keyword(s) Tuna, Pelagic fish, Literature review, FAD, Fish Aggregation Device, Association
Abstract We reviewed the literature concerning fish aggregation devices (FADs) to determine areas of relative research deficiency. Using specific searches of the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts ( ASFA) database from 1978 to December 2003 and a classical search of the pre-1978 literature, we collected 407 references on FADs. Publications before 1980 were predominantly peer-reviewed, although non-peer reviewed literature has dominated since 1980, due to the numerous technical reports produced as FADs became more widely used in artisinal and large-scale industrial. sheries in the 1980s. Most studies of the ecology of FAD-associated fish were descriptive, with few mensurative experimental studies and even fewer manipulative experimental studies that tested specific hypotheses, due to inherent difficulties in working in the open ocean on objects that are temporary in space and time. Research on the ecology of FAD-associated fish has focused on moored FADs, despite the major FAD-based. sheries being around drifting FADs. Publications presenting information on moored FADs outnumbered papers on drifting FADs by a ratio of 3.5: 1. We recommend that greater emphasis be placed by. sheries scientists and funding agencies on researching drifting FADs to provide better information for management of large-scale FAD-based industrial. sheries. Future research should focus on determining the patterns of use of drifting FADs by pelagic species, the underlying sensory processes of attraction and the ecological consequences for individual fish stocks and the wider pelagic ecosystem of the use of FADs as. sheries enhancement tools.
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