Environmental assessment of common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) from a small-scale fishery in Algarve (Portugal)

Abstract

Purpose Common octopus is the fishing species with highest economic revenue in Portugal, and its consumption per capita is very high. The majority of catches come from the small-scale fleet with pots and traps. The aims were to assess main environmental impacts of common octopus’ fishery with traps and pots in the Algarve region, where the most important fleet size and landings volume occurs, and to find if there are significant differences between both fishing gears. Methods The assessment includes standard LCA impact categories, fishery-specific impact categories, and quantification of macroplastics and microplastics emitted to the environment. The functional unit selected was 1 kg of octopus and the study was a ‘cradle to gate’ system. The scope included fishing operations until the product is landed at the harbour. Primary data was obtained by face-to-face questionnaires from 22 vessels, with an average of 1005 pots and 1211 traps per vessel, and 372 pots and 234 traps lost annually to the environment. Plastic pots have a concrete block and traps are a metal framed covered by plastic netting. Each trap or pot is connected to the main line at regular intervals. Unlike traps, pots do not need bait. Results and discussion Fuel contribution to global warming is very high and where the highest potential exists to lower down the carbon footprint. The fuel use intensity resulted in 0.9 L/kg of octopus. The bait used in traps is significant and raises further environmental costs related with fuel consumption. The use of traps represents more than two times the impacts found for pots in all the categories studied except ecotoxicity categories. Zinc use was the main contributor to ecotoxicity categories, but it has not been included in other fishery LCA studies. It was estimated that 12.2 g of plastics is lost to the environment per kg of octopus. The loss of macroplastics from fishing gears was the highest contributor. Conclusions The carbon footprint obtained was 3.1 kg CO2 eq per kg of octopus, being lower compared to other seafood products, and less than half compared to octopus caught with trawling. Pots and traps are highly selective fishing gears, causing negligible disturbance to the seafloor. The stock is not assessed, but management measures exist and can be improved. A drawback exists related with gears lost to the environment.

Towards Sustainability: A Framework for Evaluating Portuguese Small-Scale Fisheries

“…With respect to the environmental dimension the data on Portuguese SSFs is fragmented across numerous peer-reviewed publications, owing to the significant diversity in fishing fleets, gear types, targeted species, fishing locations, seasons, and habitats. This aspect limits the ability to perform comparative studies between fisheries and gears given that fishing fleets, gear, target species, locations, seasons, and ecosystems vary greatly, Portuguese fishery data are scattered throughout peer-reviewed publications (e.g., [18,52,53,56,57,[59][60][61][62][63][64][65]67]). These characteristic makes it more challenging to conduct research that compares fishing impacts among fisheries and gears [85,86].…”

“…These characteristic makes it more challenging to conduct research that compares fishing impacts among fisheries and gears [85,86]. An important step forward in data collection would be to promote research about gear selectivity (e.g., accidental catches and discards), which could be used to review fishing gear (e.g., mesh size, materials, number) and adjust them to reduce their impact on the marine environment [53]. Therefore, besides the significant academic efforts, more data are needed to completely describe the impact of fishing gear used on target and non-target species and on the marine environment.…”

“…In Portugal, there are two main studies assessing, among other parameters, CO 2 emissions from fishing vessels; one dedicated to the sardine purse seining [52], and the other focuses on the common octopus' fishery [53]. Regarding fuel efficiency, besides these studies, two peer-reviewed articles evaluating trawl fisheries were found [54,55].…”

A Review on Navigating Sustainable Naval Design: LCA and Innovations in Energy and Fuel Choices

“…The methodology lends itself to application in all sectors of industry, such as aerospace [18], manufacturing [19], automotive [20], biomedical [21], and naval, which this article focuses on. In this context, the studies conducted can be of a general nature, like those that will be analyzed in this review, but also very specific, addressing the impact of particular activities, such as the impact of fishing [22][23][24] and of fishing-specific fish species, such as tuna [25], bluefish [24,26,27], and others [28][29][30], through an LCA. Other studies focus on the manufacturing methods of boats [31,32] and the materials used [33].…”

Pengelolaan Perikanan Gurita dengan Pendekatan Pengelolaan Perikanan Berbasis Ekosistem (EAFM) di Kabupaten Minahasa Utara, Provinsi Sulawesi Utara

“…Karakteristik masyarakat nelayan terbentuk mengikuti sifat dinamis sumber daya yang dikelolanya. Selain itu, risiko usaha dalam bidang perikanan yang tinggi dapat membentuk kehidupan masyarakat nelayan dalam suasana alam yang keras yang selalu diliputi ketidakpastian dalam menjalankan usahanya (Sudarmo et al, 2016;Almeida et al, 2022). Berikut ini adalah rincian mengenai jumlah nelayan di lokasi penelitian dapat dilihat pada Gambar 2.…”