In 1980, the State of Hawaii implemented a fish aggregation device (FAD) program to promote fishing opportunities statewide. Various types of FADs have been used throughout the Pacific Islands for decades as an effective method to attract pelagic species, like tuna and mahimahi, targeted by commercial and noncommercial fishermen.

More recently, agencies and organizations around the Pacific have begun to upgrade their FAD designs to take advantage of technologies able to collect real-time information about ocean conditions, such as sea surface temperature, wave height, wind speed and even fish biomass. These devices are referred to as “smart FADs.”

The Hawaii Advisory Panel (AP) of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council had been working to establish a community smart FAD that could support cooperative research and provide community benefits. The AP has explored different technologies, platforms and partnerships with the goal of monitoring, comparing and correlating environmental conditions with catch data.

Information collected could help fishermen, scientists and resource managers better understand impacts from environmental changes.

The AP heard presentations from the Pacific Community (SPC), Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) and the Nature Conservancy (TNC) on similar projects that were deployed in other Pacific Island areas.

Off the coast of New Caledonia, the SPC and PacIOOs deployed several FADs with a Sofar Spotter, a solar-powered, self-contained buoy that can record the waves’ speed, direction and height; wind speed and direction; sea surface temperature; and sea surface current and direction. This FAD system provides real-time data for users.

In New Caledonia, the spotter buoy monitors coastal hazards in real-time and measured a wave height of 23.5 feet as Tropical Cyclone Niran passed through the area in early 2021. In Guam, TNC is collaborating with local agencies to develop a smart FAD network to provide information to fishermen and managers.

The system attaches small echosounder buoys to FADs that are able to:

Identify fish at depths of more than 100 meters with high resolution.

Identify different species and produce biomass estimates; and provide remote customized data products.

In November 2021, a team from the Guam Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources deployed the first echosounder buoy in Guam attached to a FAD located north of Ritidian Point.

The echosounder detected a tuna biomass peak on Dec. 26 of up to 105,000 pounds at a depth between 195 and 360 feet — the largest of several large peaks observed since the echosounder buoy was deployed. The weather was too rough for fishermen to fish the FAD when the school was detected.

A data-sharing framework is in the works so that fishery management agencies can easily access the information received from the smart FADs and share it with the fishing community through a web portal.