Nearshore Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs)

What are FADs/Rumpons?

A rumpon is a traditional Indonesian fish house. In Bahasa Indonesia, the word means exactly that: a home for fish.

It's a bamboo raft anchored in deep open water, with coconut palm fronds trailing below the surface to attract baitfish. Indonesian fishermen have used them for generations. The principle has not changed in centuries. Put a structure in open ocean, wait for the food chain to organize itself around it.

The Structure

The physical structure is modest. Many bamboo poles are lashed together at the surface around styrofoam floats for buoyancy. Then palm fronds are prepared to hang below the fad for additional surface area for fish. Beneath that, open water descending several hundred meters to a seabed that is never visible.

There is no reef. No wall. No bottom. The rumpon is the only fixed point in a completely open ocean environment. The mooring line running below the surface is the only orientation axis available to a diver working at depth. Everything else is blue in every direction.

The awe of no bottom, no wall, and no reef is real. Endless blue. Some might compare it to being in outer space.

Conditions vary with the season and sea state. Visibility runs 20 to 30 metres on a good day, often cleaner than anything available inshore. Current varies with tidal movement through the Lombok Strait and can shift the character of a dive quickly. Swell is the primary access variable.

Speak to us before committing to a date. The best days here are glassy and windless.

The Life

Baitfish arrive first, drawn to the shade and structure of the fronds. Predators follow. Wahoo cruise the upper water column in small packs, hunting the baitfish spiraling out from the structure. Tuna work deeper, visible in glimpses until they commit to an approach. Mahi-Mahi hold directly at the structure, curious and aggressive in equal measure. Other smaller fish like Rainbow Runners form tight schools that orbit the rumpon in constant rotation.

On a productive day, the water around a single bamboo raft holds more apex predators in one location than most divers encounter across a full week on any reef.

Who This Is For

Freedivers comfortable in open ocean blue water without a bottom reference, and spearfishers targeting large pelagic species specifically.

For spearfishing, the FADS are the primary reason serious blue water hunters travel to Bali. Species are large, fast, and range-sensitive. Shot placement matters more in open water than anywhere else.