I have got some ideas for building and deploying my own personal FAD (I plan to call it "iFad") what do you guys think of the idea?

what is your fad?

Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) is basically either a floating or anchored surfaced or submerged structure that attracts fish. Kind of like how a wreck attracts fish. I want to do a submerged FAD that has no surface marking and do it offshore. I think I can build one for a few hundred bucks and at the same time rid my shed of some junk I don't need anymore.

how long will it last? and what happens if and when it breaks free?

are you looking to attract mahimahi and stuff and keep the location secret?

how long will it last? and what happens if and when it breaks free?

are you looking to attract mahimahi and stuff and keep the location secret?

make friends with the canyon bug comms.
all the mahi you want. :)

guys in FL hang 4X8 sheets of 3/4 ply vertically to make 24-40' FADs.

I think the canyon is too deep for what I have but maybe something in 150-250' deep made from sealed PVC pipes (a series of buoyant rafts with lots of streamers) and anchored to the bottom via poly rope to a pile of cement blocks...maybe 50' below the surface just inside outside the shipping lanes.
I figure in a few months or so after it gets some growth on it, it should attract something.

Until the first dragger runs it over.

Until the first dragger runs it over.

4 mi outta Jupiter Inlet no draggers

Until the first dragger runs it over.

I figure if it works, more people will do it and eventually there will be so many FADs that draggers will just move on.

I figure if it works, more people will do it and eventually there will be so many FADs that draggers will just move on.

just like they move on with all the lobster trawls

this was all the rage a few years back.. everyone was doing it. it was such a FAD... :hihi:

Sandman,

Don't know but that could be a slippery slope. Whether it is surface or subsurface it will become derelect fishing gear if not maintained. Can it be retrievable?

Think of all the BS with the whales geting caught up in fishing gear causing the fishing industry to use breakaway links etc.

If you dig deep enough there are probably some regulations on what it can be made of and where you can put it etc etc.

just like they move on with all the lobster trawls

:rotf2:

think geodesic

Buckminster Fuller

I've got a honda minivan with 230K miles you can sink if you want.

If I had the ability to do it I might take you up on it. Ya know I would not mind seeing an old automobile reef in deeper water. (100'+) Imagine a several mile long reef where now we have an underwater desert. In a year it would be covered in growth and create habitat where there is none.
Not to mention it will keep the draggers away, esp if you scatter a few stray ones around the reef.

I have a buddy who is very active in artificial reef deployment (not in New England though) a few years ago he sent me this video of one they did down south. The place was an underwater desert then check it out after is sat a few months. I just uploaded the video and divers visit the reef 0, 3, 10 months after deployment.

YouTube - subwayfish (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUpZTW3mR40)

Not to mention it will keep the draggers away, esp if you scatter a few stray ones around the reef.

do the math on how much 200 offshore traps weigh then think about that statement.

Buckminster Fuller

there was an article in wired
describing how if you had some wire mesh
of two different types of wire electrified with
a very low current it would calcify and eventually close in
and fill each and every opening in the wire until it became solid.

so if you built these dome bubbles (i call them)
stacked them on a barge and then dropped them down
in a cluster and connected them in series it would work

the best advantage of using Geodesics is the shape.....
same as constructing a round barn on land
which encloses the MOST amount of space
with the least amount of materials
and is stronger than any other design there is.

Pretty cool video Sandman, thanks!

likwid...draggers suck anyway you look at it, no math required. It is a stone-age way to fish and it should be stopped world-wide.

likwid...draggers suck anyway you look at it, no math required. It is a stone-age way to fish and it should be stopped world-wide.

What about dumping crap in the ocean?

pvc?
really?

I was fishing offshore last year in Va. Beach when the cap told us we were going to do some bottom fishing on the way home. I asked where and he said he had a secret wreck to fish that nobody knew about.I asked how he knew about it and he just smiled.fad 101.

A U.S. Coast Guard boat passes near a grand piano on a sandbar ... - Yahoo! News Photos (http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//110125/480/urn_publicid_ap_org_ea082e4f891c40ac96451efef34307 a2/)

Technically you need a permit for the Corp. of engineers, big fines if you get caught and don't have one. Eventually a dragger will probably do it in, or a big ship outside the shipping lanes.