Spatio-temporal variability in drifting Fish Aggregating Device (dFAD) beaching events in the Seychelles Archipelago MacMillan, I. Attrill, M. J. /Imzilen, Taha /Lett, Christophe Walmsley, S. Chu, C. /Kaplan, David abandoned lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) coral reefs marine conservation marine litter purse seine tropical tuna fisheries Purse-seine fisheries use drifting Fish Aggregating Devices (dFADs), human-made floating objects, to facilitate the capture of tropical tunas. Currently, the majority of dFADs are constructed primarily of highly durable non-biodegradable materials and there is no legal obligation to recover dFADs after deployment, leading to beaching events and potentially negative environmental impacts. We assessed beachings as a function of intra- and inter-annual trends, water depth, distance from land, seasonality, and benthic habitat within the local context of the Seychelles Archipelago using trajectories of dFADs deployed by French purse seiners over 2008-2020. Overall, 3842 beaching events associated with 2371 distinct dFAD tracking buoys were identified. Beachings occurred most frequently during the winter monsoon (December-March). Due to the shallow Mahe Plateau, beachings occurred in both nearshore (<= 5 km from land) and offshore (> 5 km) regions, predominantly in estimated depths less than 60 m. Despite representing < 20% of overall mapped habitat, the benthic habitat "Coral/Algae" had the highest beaching rate (35.3% of beachings), and therefore, beachings pose a significant concern for conservation. Our results provide a detailed view of the spatio-temporal pattern of beachings in the Seychelles, supporting the development of mitigation and prevention methods to reduce marine debris and perturbations to the marine environment. 2022 text https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010085186 fdi:010085186 MacMillan I., Attrill M. J., Imzilen Taha, Lett Christophe, Walmsley S., Chu C., Kaplan David. Spatio-temporal variability in drifting Fish Aggregating Device (dFAD) beaching events in the Seychelles Archipelago. 2022, [Early access], [14 ] EN SEYCHELLES OCEAN INDIEN