A payaos is a type of

fish aggregating device A fish aggregating (or aggregation) device (FAD) is a man-made object used to attract ocean-going pelagic fish such as marlin, tuna and mahi-mahi (dolphin fish). They usually consist of buoys or floats tethered to the ocean floor with concrete blo ...

used in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

, particularly in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. Payaos were traditionally bamboo rafts for handline fishing before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, but modern steel payaos use fish lights and fish location sonar to increase yields. While payaos fishing is sustainable on a small scale, the large scale, modern applications have been linked to adverse impacts on

fish stocks Fish stocks are subpopulations of a particular species of fish, for which intrinsic parameters (growth, recruitment, mortality and fishing mortality) are traditionally regarded as the significant factors determining the stock's population dyn ...

Traditional payaos

A traditional payaos is a simply constructed

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

raft with a superstructure at or just below the waterline, most commonly constructed of

palm frond The palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm ''( Phoenix)'' was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt represented immortality. ...

s. Using hand-line fishing, fishermen take advantage of

pelagic fish Pelagic fish live in the pelagic zone of ocean or lake waters—being neither close to the bottom nor near the shore—in contrast with demersal fish that do live on or near the bottom, and reef fish that are associated with coral re ...

's attraction to floating objects. Large

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max len ...

can be caught in this manner at depths of under 300 meters, far shallower than by contemporary methods like purse seining. Wesley A. Armstrong and Charles W. Oliver, "Recent Use of Fish Aggregating Devices in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Tuna Purse-Seine Fishery: 1990-1994," Southwest Fisheries Science Center
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Last accessed 20 December 2006 Before World War II anchored and drifting payaos were deployed in all Philippines regional waters barring the east, where strong currents prohibited it. Payaos are frequently anchored in the coastal waters, passively fishing for migrating fish. The chronic overfishing of regional Philippine waters, combined with the low impact of shallow-water payaos fishing, has led to the establishment of the Tuna Productivity Project in

Davao Gulf Davao Gulf is a gulf situated in the southeastern portion of Mindanao in the Philippines. It has an area of or about 520,000 hectares. Davao Gulf cuts into the island of Mindanao from the Philippine Sea. It is surrounded by all five provinces in ...

. This will encourage traditional and environmentally sound fishing, and aims to decrease the catch of juvenile fish.

Modern payaos

The traditional payaos has been adapted to meet the demand for commercially sized catches. They are now commonly used in conjunction with purse seiners, pump boats, and gillnet fishing. The success of these methods has greatly increased the pressure on fish stocks. The use of lighted payaos to attract fish has also had a large impact on catch size and profitability, and by the 1980s over 2,000 commercial payaos were being used in the

Moro Gulf The Moro Gulf is the largest gulf in the Philippines. It is located off the coast of Mindanao Island, and is part of the Celebes Sea. The gulf is one of the country's tuna fishing grounds. Geography The gulf stretches between and is surrounde ...

alone. By this time most other South Pacific nations had payaos programs and were seeking to improve their designs for increased durability for use in open ocean environments. In particular, the drifting payaos using seines, as well as the lighted anchored payaos, catch juvenile tuna and byproduct fish, thereby affecting the lifecycle of the tuna beyond the simple loss of numbers from the catch. No international policy has been set on the placement of payaos, and many are currently deployed in

sea lane A sea lane, sea road or shipping lane is a regularly used navigable route for large water vessels (ships) on wide waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation wi ...

s, presenting a navigational hazard. The replacement of bamboo with steel cages has also increased potential danger from collision and entanglement.

References

{{fisheries and fishing Fishing techniques and methods

Traditional payaos

Modern payaos

See also

References