| Summary: | Human population is ever increasing. Population in 2009 is currently approaching 7 billion people and is expected to become 9.7 billion in 2050. Seafood is an important protein income for humans. According to FAO, more than 80% of all fish stock on Earth are either fully exploited or over exploited. Fisheries have considerable environmental impacts such as effects on seafloor caused by fishing gear, effects on biodiversity, use of fossil fuels and other chemicals that contribute to climate changes, acidification and ecosystem toxicity, and depletion of minerals. By applying Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) a holistic overview over the whole life cycle of a final product can be gained. In this study 1 kg of frozen processed Icelandic cod product is assessed, caught by two different fishing gears, a long liner and a bottom trawler in order to evaluate their environmental impacts. The data was gathered from two seafood companies in Iceland, FISK Seafood that owned and operated the bottom trawler Hegranes Sk and Vísir Hf that owns and operates the long liner Kristín ÞH. Information came from two fish process plants owned by the seafood companies at Sauðárkrókur and Þingeyri. The product was followed from the processing plant through transportation to Sevilla in Spain where it is sold and consumed. The conclusions are that bottom trawled cod compared to long line caught cod, has higher environmental impacts within all categories assessed such as climate change,respiratory organics/inorganics, eco-toxicity, acidification and fossil fuel. The most dominating phase within both fishing methods is the fishery phase, which is due to fossil fuel consumption. For 1 kg of processed bottom trawled cod, 1.1 litre of fuel was combusted by the fishing vessel. For same amount of long liner caught cod, 0.36 litres were utilized. Substantial environmental impact is coming from processing phase, especially within the trawled cod product. This is mainly due to cooling agents that are utilized inside the processing plant and have great ...
|
|---|