Fuel Intensity in Icelandic fisheries and opportunities to reduce emissions

Byrne, Conor; Agnarsson, Sveinn; Davíðsdóttir, Brynhildur

doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104448

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…17) stipulating that allocation of catch or effort allowances should also consider respective EU Member State's fleet fuel use and energy efficiency. However, there is increasing evidence to suggest a correlation between reduced fuel use and stock recovery (Hornborg and Smith, 2020;Byrne et al, 2021;Bastardie et al, 2022). Therefore, seeking a reduction of the fuel use and GHG emissions appears to be interlinked with the capacity of the fisheries and the ability of the stocks they fish upon to resist and recover from climate-induced stresses and shocks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten lessons on the resilience of the EU common fisheries policy towards climate change and fuel efficiency - A call for adaptive, flexible and well-informed fisheries management

et al. 2022

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To effectively future-proof the management of the European Union fishing fleets we have explored a suite of case studies encompassing the northeast and tropical Atlantic, the Mediterranean, Baltic and Black Seas. This study shows that European Union (EU) fisheries are likely resilient to climate-driven short-term stresses, but may be negatively impacted by long-term trends in climate change. However, fisheries’ long-term stock resilience can be improved (and therefore be more resilient to increasing changes in climate) by adopting robust and adaptive fisheries management, provided such measures are based on sound scientific advice which includes uncertainty. Such management requires regular updates of biological reference points. Such updates will delineate safe biological limits for exploitation, providing both high long-term yields with reduced risk of stock collapse when affected by short-term stresses, and enhanced compliance with advice to avoid higher than intended fishing mortality. However, high resilience of the exploited ecosystem does not necessarily lead to the resilience of the economy of EU fisheries from suffering shocks associated with reduced yields, neither to a reduced carbon footprint if fuel use increases from lower stock abundances. Fuel consumption is impacted by stock development, but also by changes in vessel and gear technologies, as well as fishing techniques. In this respect, energy-efficient fishing technologies already exist within the EU, though implementing them would require improving the uptake of innovations and demonstrating to stakeholders the potential for both reduced fuel costs and increased catch rates. A transition towards reducing fuel consumption and costs would need to be supported by the setup of EU regulatory instruments. Overall, to effectively manage EU fisheries within a changing climate, flexible, adaptive, well-informed and well-enforced management is needed, with incentives provided for innovations and ocean literacy to cope with the changing conditions, while also reducing the dependency of the capture fishing industry on fossil fuels. To support such management, we provide 10 lessons to characterize ‘win-win’ fishing strategies for the European Union, which develop leverages in which fishing effort deployed corresponds to Maximum Sustainable Yield targets and Common Fisheries Policy minimal effects objectives. In these strategies, higher catch is obtained in the long run, less fuel is spent to attain the catch, and the fisheries have a higher resistance and resilience to shock and long-term factors to face climate-induced stresses.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten lessons on the resilience of the EU common fisheries policy towards climate change and fuel efficiency - A call for adaptive, flexible and well-informed fisheries management

et al. 2022

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“…Hence, it makes sense to base fisheries regulation on what productivity they could have, not on current features in heavily impacted conditions (e.g., Davies et al, 2021; Adriatic Jabuka Pit's recent successful example in Martinelli et al, 2023). Shifting from fuel-intensive, active gear fisheries to those that use passive gears with less energy-demanding fishing vessels also comes with co-benefits in the current effort for decarbonising the EU fleet, aiming for a climate-neutral sector by 2050 (Byrne et al, 2021;Bastardie et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A roadmap to reduce the risk of overexploiting EU marine living resources in a changing ocean

Bastardie,

Salvany,

Cooper

et al. 2024

Front. Mar. Sci.

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We provide a balanced overview of how risk assessment and management is being tackled in the European Union (EU) and beyond to address the challenges of overexploiting marine living resources in EU waters. We aim to guide EU fisheries and aquaculture policymakers towards key actions to foster the transition to responsible, sustainable, clean energy, and resilient fisheries and aquaculture sectors, aligning with EU environmental objectives under the European Green Deal and the Common Fisheries Policy. Despite progress in reducing fishing pressure on some stocks in recent years, most of the stated (single-stock) sustainability objectives still need to be met. The risk of overexploiting marine resources remains high, especially when combined with other pressures such as pollution and climate change. Risk is defined as the probability of an adverse event arising from natural or human activities and excessive pressures. Scientists have documented these pressures, proposing regional risk assessments to support adequate risk-based management of human activities impacting marine and coastal regions. As a next step, we recall actionable short- to long-term recommendations to reduce the risks associated with exploiting these natural resources and ensure their sustainability and resilience. This includes actions the EU can take to improve and implement fisheries policy while prioritising less harmful alternatives among current fishing methods and considering the three pillars of sustainability i.e. environmental, economic and social. Such actions include capturing in scientific advice the strong, causal links between pressures induced by human activities, natural disturbances and ecosystem states; such understanding can be used in an uncertain and changing environment, with ocean productivity possibly trending towards new levels. Finally, we restate that conserving by reducing pressures and restoring the integrity of marine ecosystems is crucial for minimising the risk of overexploitation and ensuring future fishing and farming opportunities. This is the aim of an Ecosystem Approach to fisheries and aquaculture – it should safeguard the long-term economic and social capital already invested by the public and private sectors in exploiting marine living resources to continue delivering healthy, low-carbon, low-impact seafood to EU citizens and beyond.

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“…Related to point (iii), this study has shown how the overall fuel efficiency can reflect the stock situation. Establishing this correlation with empirical data was a novel endeavour, with rare previous examples (but see Hospido and Tyedmers, 2005;Ziegler and Hornborg, 2014;Byrne et al, 2021). Studies often estimate the efficiency at the segment level for all catches combined (e.g., Van Marlen et al, 2009, Guillen et al, 2015, not linking fuel consumption to specific species.…”

Section: Improving Exploited Stock Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since fuel use is also an essential aspect of the fishing economy, finding less fuel-intensive fishing practices for seafood production has been an issue for several decades (FAO, 1995). Extensive efforts have therefore been made to find innovative technical solutions for saving fuel, including modernization and renewal of the fishing fleet, investments in energy-efficient propellers, gears and other equipment, replacement of engines, and the construction of new energyefficient vessel hulls and other energy-efficient procedures for fishing activities (e.g., Sala et al, 2011;Suuronen et al, 2012;Basurko et al, 2013;Parker et al, 2017;Byrne et al, 2021). However, energy use is now further challenging the fishing capture sector because of the need to end the use of fossil fuels and the episodic rise in fuel prices, which will likely rise again over the coming years e.g., EC, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What drives the fuel and economic efficiency of fisheries needs to be better understood by collating and analysing more data (Schau et al, 2009;Sala et al, 2011;Ziegler and Hornborg, 2014;Parker and Tyedmers, 2015;Jafarzadeh et al, 2016;Byrne et al, 2021). Identifying the most efficient production methods between different fishing techniques and management systems may ultimately promote environmentally friendly fishing practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reducing the Fuel Use Intensity of Fisheries: Through Efficient Fishing Techniques and Recovered Fish Stocks

et al. 2022

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Understanding the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions in food production systems is becoming urgent. For wild capture fisheries, fuel use during the fishing phase generally dominates emissions and is highly variable between fisheries. Fuel use is also essential for the economy of the fisheries, but fuel-intensive fisheries can still be profitable due to fuel subsidies, in particular, if the target species is of high value. Developing an innovative bottom-up approach based on detailed catch and spatial fishing effort data, in the absence of direct fuel data, we analysed the fuel use intensity (fuel use per kg landed) and economic efficiency (landing value per litre fuel used) of Danish capture fisheries for the period 2005-2019. An overall decline in fishing effort did not significantly affect the overall fuel use intensity and efficiency, which was stable for most of the fleet segments and marine species. Robust differences in fuel use intensity among individual fisheries, reflected differential spatial accessibility and vulnerability of target species to fishing. In addition, different fishing techniques targeting the same set of species showed differences in fuel use per unit landed. Danish seining and gillnets had a lower fuel use intensity and higher economic efficiency than demersal trawling; and purse seining than pelagic trawling. The variability between stocks and fleets also indicates that there is generally potential for improvement in overall efficiency from improved stock status. Short-term management actions to promote the best available fuel-efficient fishing techniques combined with additional long-term actions to secure the recovery of stocks have the potential to reduce fishery greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable fisheries and normative environmental management are crucial to developing incentives towards reducing fuel use whenever the fishing sector industry and science work jointly at implementing solutions, as incentives for the industry to reduce fuel use are limited as long as the fishing activity is profitable.

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Fuel Intensity in Icelandic fisheries and opportunities to reduce emissions

Cited by 17 publications

References 52 publications

Ten lessons on the resilience of the EU common fisheries policy towards climate change and fuel efficiency - A call for adaptive, flexible and well-informed fisheries management

Ten lessons on the resilience of the EU common fisheries policy towards climate change and fuel efficiency - A call for adaptive, flexible and well-informed fisheries management

A roadmap to reduce the risk of overexploiting EU marine living resources in a changing ocean

Reducing the Fuel Use Intensity of Fisheries: Through Efficient Fishing Techniques and Recovered Fish Stocks

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