The global increase in fuel-intensive fisheries has led to a substantial increase in CO2 emissions from fishing vessels. In general, fuel-intensive (active) fishing techniques not only contribute more to climate change than less fuel-intensive (passive) fishing techniques, but they also have significant direct negative impacts on the marine ecosystem. Seas At Risk is promoting a reduction of the carbon footprint of fisheries by a shift to less fuel-intensive, low-impact fisheries.

Global fisheries burned almost 42.4 million tons of fuel in 2000, representing about 1.2% of the global oil consumption, and an amount equivalent to the national consumption of The Netherlands. By doing so, fishing boats emitted more than 130 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere - comparable to the amount emitted by road transport in the UK - at an average rate of 1.7 tons of CO2 per tonne of live weight landed product. From an efficiency perspective, the energy content of the fuel burned by global fisheries is 12.5 times greater than the edible protein energy content of the resulting catch. European fishing fleets are major oil consumers amongst the world’s fishing fleets and therefore responsible for a substantial part of those emissions.

A significant reduction of CO2 emissions in fishing activities can be achieved by switching from (active) fuel-intensive and environmentally harmful techniques such as dredging, bottom trawling and beam-trawling, to alternative (passive) techniques that use less fuel and are generally less damaging to the environment. For example, the fuel needed to catch and land a kilo of Norway lobster can be reduced from 9 litres to 2.2 litres by switching from conventional trawl fisheries to creel fisheries. Such a switch would also significantly reduce the by-catch of non-target species and provide the consumer with a Norway lobster of better quality since it is not squashed in the trawler’s net. Another example is the Danish flat-fish fishery where the amount of diesel fuel per kg of caught fish could be reduced by a factor of 15 by switching from beam-trawling to the Danish seine. The Danish seine is a semi-passive fishery which has less impact on the bottom.

A shift to less fuel-intensive and low-impact fishing methods and gears provides a more sustainable long-term solution than simply using more energy efficient motors, which would initially reduce fuel consumption but in the longer term worsen the situation by contributing to an increase in fishing effort and an increase in pressure on already over-fished stocks. Further depletion of fish stocks means that fishers have to go further to find fish and in doing so end up burning more fuel per kilo of landed fish, leading to a destructive cycle of depleted fish stocks, increasing CO2 emissions and the destruction of marine life.

Such a shift in fishing methods and gears can be promoted by removing the environmentally harmful fuel subsidies and phasing out fuel tax exemption for fisheries, while at the same time providing financial and other incentives, for example by using the European Fisheries Fund, to facilitate the shift to new gear and by allocating special quota or fishing zones for less fuel-intensive low impact fisheries. In addition, consumers and retailers should be provided with the choice to avoid fish products with a very large carbon footprint. A strong consumer demand for fish products with a small carbon footprint will facilitate a shift to less fuel-intensive and low-impact fishing methods and gears.

Available in: English/Spanish/Danish/Portuguese/French/Dutch

EN_Brochure_Reducing the Footprint: Moving Towards Low Impact Fisheries

ES_Brochure_Reduciendo la huella: Avanzando hacia una pesca de bajo impacto

DA_Brochure: På vej mod naturskånsomt fiskeri

PT_Brochure_Reduzir a pegada: Rumo a pescas de baixo impacto

FR_Brochure_Réduire l’empreinte: Pour une pêche à faible impact

NL_Brochure: De voetafdruk verkleinen: Verschuiving naar low impact visserij

Seas At Risk brochure "The carbon footprint of fisheries" (December 2008).

For information on global GHG target setting click here

For information on GHG emissions & shipping click here