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The importance of using life cycle assessment in policy support to determine the sustainability of fishing fleets: a case study for the small-scale xeito fishery in Galicia, Spain

  • CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICE IN LCAS OF SEAFOOD AND OTHER AQUATIC PRODUCTS
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Abstract

Purpose

Drift net fishing activities have undergone a thorough revision at a European Union level, since authorities argue that several loopholes still exist in the legislation that allow small-scale fisheries to use these gears. High incidental catches, or the lack of selectivity, are some of the primary scientific criteria behind this discussion. This new framework is of particular interest in the region of Galicia (NW Spain) due to the social importance of small-scale fishing vessels using drift nets. In fact, over 400 vessels have a licence to capture European pilchard (Sardina pilchardus) with a fishing gear called xeito, which is a small-scale drift net.

Methods

The main goal of this article is to provide stakeholders in the fishing sector with environmentally relevant results regarding the life cycle impacts linked to fishing practices performed by small-scale vessels using the xeito gear to target European pilchard. We hypothesize that environmental impacts computed with LCA will provide additional insights to the sustainability of the pilchard small-scale fishery in NW Spain, adding a series of criteria that may be useful for policy-makers to determine the consequences of forbidding this type of drift netting in the future.

Results and discussion

Results show that environmental impacts across impact categories and operational activities do not differ much from that of other similar fishing fleets examined in recent years, with fuel for propulsion being the main environmental burden in most impact categories. When conducting a statistical analysis, no significant difference in energy use was identified between this small-scale fleet and purse seiners targeting pilchard in Galicia. Moreover, the results obtained demonstrate, in line with previous studies, that European pilchard is still an energy-efficient source of animal protein option as compared to demersal fish alternatives, crustaceans, or livestock.

Conclusions

The results do not indicate that European pilchard landed with small-scale drift nets generates higher environmental life cycle impacts than pilchard landed by purse seiners in NW Spain. However, longer time frames for the analysis should be performed to attain results with lower uncertainty.

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Notes

  1. Energy allocation was excluded from the assessment due to the very similar energy and protein content of European pilchard and European anchovy, the two species that represented more than 98% of total landings of the fleet.

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Acknowledgements

The authors with affiliation to the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) belong to CRETUS (Astrup et al., 2015/02) and the Galician Competitive Research Group GRC ED431C 2017/29, programme co-funded by Xunta de Galicia and FEDER. Dr. Ian Vázquez-Rowe and Dr. Pedro Villanueva-Rey wish to thank the Galician Government for financial support (I2C postdoctoral student grants programme). The authors wish to thank Miguel Ángel Iglesias and Ruperto Costa, chairmen of the association of skippers in the towns of Rianxo and Cambados, respectively, for their collaboration and support in data collection. MEP Ana Miranda is also thanked for providing valuable legislative information.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Technology, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain

    Pedro Villanueva-Rey, Ian Vázquez-Rowe, Andrea Arias, Maria Teresa Moreira & Gumersindo Feijoo

  2. Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Pedro Villanueva-Rey

  3. Peruvian LCA Network, Department of Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 1801 Avenida Universitaria, San Miguel, 15088, Lima, Peru

    Ian Vázquez-Rowe

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  1. Pedro Villanueva-Rey
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Correspondence to Pedro Villanueva-Rey.

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Villanueva-Rey, P., Vázquez-Rowe, I., Arias, A. et al. The importance of using life cycle assessment in policy support to determine the sustainability of fishing fleets: a case study for the small-scale xeito fishery in Galicia, Spain. Int J Life Cycle Assess 23, 1091–1106 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-017-1402-z

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