The latest fad in fishing

There are fads that come and go -- plastic jelly bracelets, shoulder pads, diatom arranging -- and then there are those that float around for years. Decades, even. In the case of FADs, or "fish aggregating devices," we're talking about stuff literally floating in the ocean. Scientists who work in the bird colonies of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands say FADs from around the Pacific are a big part of the large debris piles they find washed up on shore. The bamboo FAD to the left is a little more biodegradable, but they are often made of old buoys, jugs or barrels, and lashed together with whatever's handy.

FADs do what the name would imply -- aggregate fish so they're easier to catch. Just as natural rafts of Sargassum attract curious fish from the wide blue sea, so does pretty much anything else floating. It's like driving in the desert; you've seen nothing but flat land for hours when you see a sign ahead. Why not stop and check it out?

If you're a fish, stopping risks being caught, and if you're a young impressionable fish, stopping means you may be sucked into the world of artificial islands forever. A new study from France's L'Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) found that fish under FADs had emptier bellies. From the press release (which I have to rely on as the full study is in French):

"Drifting FADs therefore appeared to act as super-stimuli, like strong magnets exerting a binding attraction that leads the tuna towards ecologically inappropriate waters with scarcer food supplies."

Fish may stop looking for the best places to eat and for mates, captivated by the shiny lure of the FAD. Just say no, les poissons.

UPDATE: It seems there's a plan afoot to build giant floating solar islands. Will the fish below become very very tan?