Abstract
Commercial fisheries contribute to a number of non-localized environmental and resource depletion problems, such as climate change, through the provision and use of fossil fuels, vessels, gear, refrigeration, and bait, and during post-capture processes. Here, we investigate the degree to which different management regimes may affect two fisheries' contributions to a suite of non-localized environmental concerns. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to quantify the contributions made by the 2006 Maine and 2005-2006 southwest Nova Scotia fisheries for American lobster (. Homarus americanus) to a suite of global environmental problems. The lobster fishery phase was the primary driver of resource and environmental impacts as characterized in the selected impact categories. Direct diesel use by the lobster boat was the primary source of impacts at the fishery phase, but the provision and use of bait was also a substantial contributor, particularly in the Maine fishery. Post-capture transportation of live lobster by air was a major contributor in the LFA 34 model. Lobstermen in both fisheries reported using approximately one liter of fuel per kilogram of lobster landings, but Maine lobstermen reported using three kilograms of bait per kilogram of lobster landings, while LFA 34 lobstermen reported using only one kilogram of bait per kilogram landings. The difference in bait use per unit landings resulted in the Maine lobster fishery having slightly higher global environmental impacts, when measured by the chosen impact categories, than the Nova Scotia fishery. However, the two fisheries' contributions to the selected environmental impact categories were broadly similar, despite their different management regimes, and an obvious influence of management was not identified. The findings for the lobster fisheries are placed into context with other food production systems.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 385-400 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Fisheries Research |
| Volume | 172 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 1 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Financial support for this research was provided by the Lenfest Ocean Program of the Pew Environment Group. The Lenfest Ocean Program had no involvement in the study design, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, or writing of this report. We would like to thank Dr. Robert Bayer of the University of Maine and the Lobster Institute for his guidance throughout the Maine LCA; Dr. Friederike Ziegler of the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology for her review and edits of a previous version of the manuscript; the staff of the Lobster Institute for their help in coordinating outreach opportunities; Dr. Sarah Kruse, then at Ecotrust, for her help in developing the surveys, and the staff of all of the businesses that shared their time and knowledge with us during this study. Finally, we would like to sincerely thank the hundreds of anonymous lobster license holders who responded to the surveys and questionnaires: without your effort, this project could not have succeeded.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Aquatic Science
