Global warming and pollution are killing the coral reefs in our coastal areas. These coral reefs are basically habitats that provide food and resources for our fish species. The destruction of the coral reefs is causing anxiety with coastal fishing communities that depend on the catch and consumption of reef fish. Now they are being forced to find alternative sources of food and income, so they are facing a serious threat and challenge!

The good news is that our islands have some alternatives already and tuna is an important one for them.

Unlike reef fish, tuna is not a coastal fish; therefore creativity will be needed to attract them to the coast. One way to do that would be to use small anchored coastal FADs to attract tuna closer to the shore and to encourage some communities to grow fish in freshwater ponds.

The use of FADs at a coastal scale where you have 2-3 fishermen in a boat cannot, of course, be compared to the use of hundreds of FADs by the large super seiners in the high seas.