FADS – Fish Aggregation Devices

One of the earliest CMS projects was the installation of ten FADs around the coast of St Lucia, at the request of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

The Fads consist of polypropylene flags that stream in the current, just below the surface and down to a depth of up to 200m, creating
a habitat for offshore fish populations, increasing the size of the
St Lucian fishery and reducing fishing pressure on the shallow water reefs, whilst encouraging larger pelagic species into the St. Lucian fishery from offshore.

The fads are anchored to the seabed in up to 2000m of water by concrete blocks and tethered between the blocks and a series of floats and markers on the surface, by a very long polypropylene riser rope.

At the end of the string of surface marker buoys is a flag with
a light and a radar reflector to allow fishermen to locate the FAD
and fish on it.