Mikkel Thrane

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Environmental Impacts from Danish Fish
Products - Hot spots and environmental policies

• Mikkel Thrane
• Department of Development and Planning
• Aalborg University

2
Purpose Methodological approach Main results from
quantitative LCA Energy and improvement
potentials Regulation Conclusion and
recommendations
3
Problem definition

• How can authorities and actors within the Danish
  fishery sector effectively promote cleaner fish
  products produced in Denmark?
• - what are the impacts and where are the
  environmental hot spots?
• - where is the focus in existing and future
  regulation ?
• - what are the potentials and barriers to reduce
  the impacts ?

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Purpose Methodological approach Main results from
quantitative LCA Energy and improvement
potentials Regulation Conclusion and
recommendations
5
Lifecycle perspective
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Methodological approaches

• MECO analyses (9 species groups) focus on
  energy today
• Quantitative LCA (Consequential) focus flatfish
  today
• Qualitative LCA Other impact categories not
  today
• Database ETH-ESU 96 and LCAfood
• LCIA EDIP 97 update ( verification)

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Product system for flatfish
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Data collection for each stage
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Purpose Methodological approach Main results from
quantitative LCA Energy and improvement
potentials Regulation Conclusion and
recommendations
10
Flatfish fishery
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1 kg consumed flatfish (characterized)
ETSC
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LCA results (normalized)
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..future scenario (2010-15)
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normalized
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Results for all fish products (hot spots)

• Flatfish Fishery, use and retail as
  environmental hotspots (also in future scenario)
• Shellfish (ex. mussels) Same as flatfish
• Herring, mackerel and mussels Fishing stage is
  less important, while processing is more
  important (fuel efficient fishery, boiling
  processes and energy intensive packaging)
• The on-site emissions at the processing stage
  are not important for any of the analyzed
  products

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Purpose Methodological approach Main results from
quantitative LCA Energy and improvement
potentials Regulation Conclusion and
recommendations
17
Presentation of 3 studies .

• Energy consumption for fishing (liter/kg caught
  fish)
• related to different species (sample 99 of
  Danish fishery)
• related to vessel size (Sample 10-15 vessels
  for each size)
• related to fishing gear (10-15 vessels in each
  sample)

Energy Consumption in the Danish Fishery -
Identification of Key Factors. Journal of
Industrial Ecology Vol. 8 Number 1 p. 223-239
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Energy consumption and species
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Different methods for allocation
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Eco-efficiency highest for small vessels
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Fishing methods
Passive
Semi-active
Active
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Comparison 1 (results)
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Comparison 2 (results)
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Improvement potentials

• Theoretically around 30 million liter diesel, by
  substituting trawl (beam- and bottom-) to Danish
  Seine and gillnet.
• 15 of the total fuel consumption for the entire
  Danish fishing fleet in year 2000

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Improvement potential (life cycle)
Bottom trawl
Danish seine
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Improvement potential (life cycle)
Beam trawl
Danish seine
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Other drawbacks as well
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studies from New England
Georges Banks Undredged area (Site 20)
Georges Banks Site 17 (1997), 2.5 years after
the area was closed to bottom fishing
Georges Banks Dredged area (west of site 17)
(Forsey and Pederson, 1998 Effects of fishing
gear on the sea floor of New England)
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physical impacts on seafloor habitats
(Ocean Studies Board , 2002 Effects of Trawling
and Dredging on Seafloor Habitat)
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Energy is probably a good indicator

• Environmental indicators
• - Damage to sea habitats (up) Energy (up)
• - Discard / high grading (up) Energy (up)
• - Overexploitation (up) Energy (up)
• Social indicators
• - Labour (down) Energy (up)

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Purpose Methodological approach Main results from
quantitative LCA Energy and improvement
potentials Regulation Conclusion and
recommendations
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Hot-spots versus regulation
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Why some solutions may not work (a system
dynamics perspective)
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Barriers for energy reductions

• Lack of cleaner production RD in fishing stage
  (isolated projects)
• Fishery excluded from energy tax
• Fleet reduction - mainly smaller vessel segments
• Energy not integrated in ecosystem based fishery
  management
• Danish authorities and fishermen against
  eco-label
• Narrow understanding of sustainability

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Purpose Methodological approach Main results from
LCA Energy and improvement potentials Regulation
Conclusion and recommendations
36
Environmental aspects for fish (hot-spots)

• The single most important life cycle stage is
  probably fishing for most fish products
  (confirmed by qualitative LCA)
• Other important stages are use and retail
• The most important processes are fishing, cooling
  and transport
• Waste water is not an important environmental
  issue!
• Energy consumption is a key parameter (seafloor
  discard)
• Apparently, there are significant improvement
  potentials related to substitution of trawl with
  passive and semi active fishing gear

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Paradoxes in regulation

• Mismatch between environmental regulation and
  environmental hot spots in a life cycle
  perspective (paradox 1)
• Cleaner production efforts are focused on issues
  of minor importance - not fishing stage (paradox
  2)
• New concepts such as ecosystem based fishery
  management, do not include considerations of
  energy consumption (paradox 3)
• Some regulations promote unsustainable practices
  in fishery Quota system, lack of energy tax,
  fleet reduction of eco-friendly fishing methods
  (paradox 4)

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Recommendations

• Adjust environmental regulations in the product
  chain to match hot-spots (P1)
• Eco-labeling of wild fish (P1)
• Cleaner production in the fishing stage (P2)
• Horsepower limitations - better implementation
  (P2)
• Green accounts for large vessels (P2)
• Ecosystem based fishery management also energy
  (P3)
• Integrate environmental dimension in fleet
  reduction programs quota or seaday regulation
  (P4)
• Fuel tax on EU-level (P4)