The NGO Oceana has published a report in which it maintains that there are “several possible paths” for the fishing sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality in 2050, in line with the objectives of the EU.
The report released by Oceana claims that in the current context of energy crisis “it is even more crucial to guarantee a viable fishing sector and sustainable exploitation of the seas.” This entity explores “technical and strategic solutions” to reduce the use of fuel in this industry.
In this sense, he maintains that a gradual replacement of the most destructive and energy-intensive fisheries with more passive fishing techniques “offers multiple advantages for the environment, the economy and society.”
According to Oceana, the replacement of these fisheries would make it possible to consume less fuel, which would “significantly” reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect marine habitats.
Trawling is fuel-intensive, and emits a volume of CO2 emissions that could be equivalent to the production of animal protein on land. This is stated in a report, where it is requested to reduce until gradually eliminate the fishing gear that generates a greater environmental and climate impact.
The work ‘A path for the decarbonisation of the EU fishing sector in 2050’ concludes that in the EU the active fishing gear that comes into more contact with the bottom, such as bottom trawling, are the ones that consume the most fuel per kilo of fish landed.
The high dependence on fuel is largely due to the enormous amounts of fuel and powerful engines required to drag their nets across the seabed. In addition, it indicates that these gears release large amounts of carbon that is stored on the seabed into the water, “possibly between 10 and 15 times the amount emitted by the fuel burned during fishing activity.”
Likewise, the work exposes that although fish protein is considered a food source with low carbon emissions, the most intensive techniques in fuel consumption and with less energy efficiency, such as bottom trawling, could generate comparable emissions. those of animal protein production on land.
For this reason, the NGO considers that the European Union must accelerate the transition towards a resilient fishing sector with low CO2 emissions and proposes a series of solutions to reduce fleet emissions.
The study outlines several possible pathways to achieve the EU targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the fisheries sector by 30% by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
In the presentation, Oceana advisor Alexandra Cousteau has defended that “all” sectors, including the fishing industry, have a responsibility to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
“Oceana’s report shows how certain technical solutions and management strategies would allow the fishing fleet to contribute to achieving the EU’s environmental objectives and the deadlines to mitigate climate change. Achieving it is now a matter of will,” he defended.
Specifically, this NGO considers that the gradual replacement of the most destructive and energy-intensive fisheries by more passive fishing techniques offers “multiple advantages” for the environment, the economy and society.
Among them, it advocates a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions through lower fuel consumption, increased profits by catching higher-value fish with lower operating costs, and the protection of marine habitats that store gases responsible for change. climate.
The Director of Policies and Communication of Oceana Europe, Vera Coelho, has called on the EU to reconcile environmental and economic priorities in fisheries management and stop considering that both are antagonistic. In her view, politicians need to start by removing the fishing industry’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels and ease its transition to low-carbon alternatives, which will also benefit it financially.
“Climate inaction has a greater environmental and economic cost than the transition to a future of net zero carbon emissions,” he warned.
Specifically, the work indicates that the greatest energy needs of fishing are related to the propulsion of the vessel, the trawling of the fishing gear and the manufacture of ice to preserve the catches.
In this sense, Oceana proposes, among other measures, applying existing technologies, such as improving the hydrodynamics of ships and fishing gear; optimize routes and navigation speed; incentivizing the use of low fuel intensity fishing gear to replace more energy intensive ones, and a complete ban on destructive fisheries in areas where blue carbon habitats are known to exist.
After hearing about the report, the Spanish Fisheries Confederation (CEPESCA) has described the document as “absurd and imprecise” and considers that it demonstrates the “profound ignorance” of the complexity of the activity from the social and economic point of view.
In this context, CEPESCA warns of the consequences for consumers of a “progressive environmental radicalization” of “this type of group” that is present in the European institutions and whose “sole objective” is the “eradication” of European fishing activity.
In fact, he warns that the progressive weakening of Europe’s fishing capacity and potential will mean that fish will become “a luxury food for privileged groups of the population” that will be in the hands of third countries, especially Asian countries, the supply of this protein for the rest of the population. Precisely, it warns that these fisheries are not controlled except outside of “any type of regulation, both environmental and social.”
For this reason, it regrets that the report, far from defending the challenge of decarbonising the fishing fleet, makes a “simplistic” approach and generalizes the reality of this activity without taking into account the work and achievements of the sector in terms of sustainability.
Likewise, he criticizes that the document demonizes fishing gear such as bottom trawling and “sells the benefits of marine protected areas.”
In this context, the general secretary of CEPESCA and president of the European fishing association Europêche, Javier Garat, trusts in the “little weight that approaches such as the one exposed” by Oceana have in the European project.
At the same time, it defends that the sector has “ostensibly” halved its CO2 emissions since 1990, according to data reported by the EU, and that the fleet has reduced engine power by an average of 59% in Compared to that same year, it has implemented energy efficiency technologies and has also reduced the number of operating vessels.
Among the improvement measures implemented in recent years, he cited the Platform for the Promotion of Ecofuels, of which he is a member, along with other sectoral and business organizations, to promote biodiesel, a renewable, clean fuel of natural origin, already used in land, sea and air vehicles.
This eco-fuel considerably reduces emissions, since the CO2 that is captured in the industrial generation process is offset by that produced in combustion, with which its net emissions are zero.
In this context, CEPESCA asks the European Commission to create a group of experts to advise on the available alternatives and identify the best ones for each gear, fishing ground and fleet segment. The sector criticizes that the current vessel capacity limitations set by the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) hinder this objective and are inconsistent with the EU strategy to address this energy transition.
