Eco-Design, Testing, and Sustainability Assessment of Biodegradable Drifting Fish Aggregating Devices
- 1Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT
- 2AZTI, Headquarters Pasaia(Gipuzkoa)
- 3International Seafood Sustainability Foundation
Abstract
Drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) used in tropical tuna fisheries contribute to marine plastic pollution as the fishing strategy and drifting nature can lead to dFAD loss, abandonment, or discard at sea. This poses risks to sensitive ecosystems like coral reefs, marine wildlife, hazards to navigation, and safety at sea. We co-developed three alternative dFAD designs made of only biobased materials (bioFADs: 'deep tail', 'cage', and 'cylinder' model) together with Indian Ocean fishers and tested them at sea to reduce marine litter. Life cycle assessment (LCA) revealed that all three bioFAD models achieve reduced marine litter impacts. The 'deep tail' and 'cylinder' bioFAD models exhibit comparable total normalized and weighted impacts, whereas the 'cage' model exhibits approximately 50% higher impacts. Key contributing categories are water use and marine eutrophication, with cotton-based components (ropes and canvas) representing the dominant hotspots due to irrigation and nitrogenrelated emissions. The environmental impact scores of the traditional models are lower but in the same order of magnitude as the bioFAD ones. Tradeoffs exist between reducing marine litter and increasing environmental burdens related to biobased materials, especially cotton, which call for assessing the potential of alternative solutions, less impactful natural fibers and improved retrieval and reuse strategies for dFAD components. The study highlights the innovative potential of eco-design and LCA in mitigating fisheries-sector impacts on marine ecosystems while supporting policymakers and stakeholders in transitioning toward biodegradable fishing technologies.
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BibTeX
@misc{galafton2026ecodesign,
title = {{Eco-Design, Testing, and Sustainability Assessment of Biodegradable Drifting Fish Aggregating Devices}},
author = {Christina Galafton and Maitane Grande and Gala Moreno and Hilario Murua and Hélène Gomes and Basurko Oihane C. and Daniel Maga},
howpublished = {Zenodo},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.2139/ssrn.7464958},
url = {https://zenodo.org/records/23496621},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Eco-Design, Testing, and Sustainability Assessment of Biodegradable Drifting Fish Aggregating Devices
AU - Christina Galafton
AU - Maitane Grande
AU - Gala Moreno
AU - Hilario Murua
AU - Hélène Gomes
AU - Basurko Oihane C.
AU - Daniel Maga
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
PB - Zenodo
DO - 10.2139/ssrn.7464958
UR - https://zenodo.org/records/23496621
AB - Drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) used in tropical tuna fisheries contribute to marine plastic pollution as the fishing strategy and drifting nature can lead to dFAD loss, abandonment, or discard at sea. This poses risks to sensitive ecosystems like coral reefs, marine wildlife, hazards to navigation, and safety at sea. We co-developed three alternative dFAD designs made of only biobased materials (bioFADs: 'deep tail', 'cage', and 'cylinder' model) together with Indian Ocean fishers and tested them at sea to reduce marine litter. Life cycle assessment (LCA) revealed that all three bioFAD models achieve reduced marine litter impacts. The 'deep tail' and 'cylinder' bioFAD models exhibit comparable total normalized and weighted impacts, whereas the 'cage' model exhibits approximately 50% higher impacts. Key contributing categories are water use and marine eutrophication, with cotton-based components (ropes and canvas) representing the dominant hotspots due to irrigation and nitrogenrelated emissions. The environmental impact scores of the traditional models are lower but in the same order of magnitude as the bioFAD ones. Tradeoffs exist between reducing marine litter and increasing environmental burdens related to biobased materials, especially cotton, which call for assessing the potential of alternative solutions, less impactful natural fibers and improved retrieval and reuse strategies for dFAD components. The study highlights the innovative potential of eco-design and LCA in mitigating fisheries-sector impacts on marine ecosystems while supporting policymakers and stakeholders in transitioning toward biodegradable fishing technologies.
ER -