Fish Aggregation Devices: Why Do Tuna Love Floating Objects?
Monday, July 29, 2013 - 15:40
in Biology & Nature
2 000 years ago, Roman fishermen knew that some species of fish liked to gather under floating objects. No one knew why and it didn't matter, that behavioral mechanism was just used to catch more fish in the Mediterranean. Today, artisanal and industrial tuna fisheries exploit this “aggregating phenomenon” in much the same way. Over the last thirty years, seine fishing in particular has developed rapidly through the use of massive floating objects, natural at first, then more recently fish aggregation devices (FADs) remotely monitored using electronic beacons. These floating objects help enable 40 % of worldwide tropical tuna catches today. read more