The global footprint of drifting Fish Aggregating Devices

Tuna are among the world’s most valuable marine life and have long been exploited by industrial fisheries. Increasingly, tuna fishing companies have shifted from targeting free-swimming fish to using drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs): satellite-tracked rafts that move with currents while accumulating fish below. Here we estimate the global footprint of these devices and track 30 years of progress to mitigate impacts. We estimate 1.41 million dFAD buoys were released between 2007-2021, drifting across at least 134 million km2, or 37% of Earth’s ocean surface. Lost dFADs have stranded in 104 maritime regions, contributing to coastal pollution and damaging sensitive habitats. Regulatory progress has been made to address data quality, entanglement, and pollution, but concerns over unregulated dFAD deployments, unsustainable bycatch, and weak industry accountability persist. Our results demonstrate that the cumulative environmental footprint of dFADs reaches far beyond tuna fishing grounds and remains inadequately mitigated at the global scale.

Methods
Source data used for analysis were obtained from previously published peer-reviewed literature, Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO) websites and databases, and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) website. All sources and methodology are cited in the main manuscript and/or Supplementary Materials. 

Datasets provided included data aggregated from these sources and used for the paper analyses and visualizations.