• To promote wide dissemination of recent scientific results concerning the use of FADs in the various different oceans of the world.
• To facilitate interaction and exchange of information between scientists and fisheries managers involved in FAD deployment and utilization.
• To identify and encourage future research projects concerning FAD technology and fisheries, fish behaviour and ecology and the socio-economics of FAD usage.
• To create and foster avenues of communication for future information exchange between different regions of the world.

 The Steering Commitee (1) invites all the persons working on the various aspects of FADs to participate in the meeting and to present communications on their observations and results. These contributions will be published in special proceedings. The topics discussed would be :

1) Regional Reports. Reports concerning experiences with FADs and FAD fisheries from the different oceans of the world. This topic will comprise the opening session of the symposium.

2) FAD Technology. Topics include FAD construction and deployment techniques and longevity and cost-effectiveness.

3) FAD Fishing Methods. Reports covering different fishing techniques, methods and strategies from various parts of the world.

4) Biology of Pelagic Fish Aggregations. This theme will cover the biology of both natural and FAD-associated fish aggregations. Topics may include phenomena such as orientation behaviour, residence times, periodicity of aggregation, etc., and the effects of these phenomena on exploitation strategies and methods.

5) Effects of FADs on Fisheries Resources. This topic covers possible impacts of FADs on both offshore and coastal resources and the fishing fleets which exploit them. Possible interactions between coastal and offshore fleets will be considered.

6) Socio-economics and Anthropology. This topic includes consideration of the economic and cultural impacts of FADs on fishing communities. A range of scales will be considered from individual fishing vessels through management agencies to government policy.

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