Hawaii was one of the first locations to adapt the Philippine payao concept for use in high energy, deep-water environments. Initial experimental fad deployments were made by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 1977. In 1980, the State of Hawaii started deploying FADs in a programme that has since expanded to its current status of 52 approved surface fad sites. Funding is primarily derived from federal US programmes and the FADs are primarily focused on the sport fishing community. fad sites were selected to expedite access by sport fishermen; specific sites were chosen after consultation with fishermen at public hearings. Since 1997, the FAD system has been managed on a collaborative basis between the State of Hawaii and the University of Hawaii. Hawaiian FADs evolved through two previous designs before the current system of single-sphere spar-buoy was adopted. Today's FADs have an "inverse catenary" mooring system comprised of sections of floating and sinking rope attached to a "tripod" concrete block anchor system. fad sites range between 3.2 km and 46 km from shore. Mooring depths range between 200 and 3,000 metres. Average on-site longevity is 31 months; there is no correlation between longevity and depth of mooring. Windward locations have significantly shorter lifespans than leeward locations. Ten to twenty fads are replaced each year. Each FAD costs approximately us$ 7,500 to build and deploy. Hawaiian fads are heavily used by private and commercial sport fishermen and by small-scale artisanal and commercial fishermen. Commercial pole-and-line boats occasionally use the FADs to capture skipjack tuna. Hawaiian FADs will continue to be used for various types of pelagic fisheries research.