Assessing greenhouse gas emissions from Scotland’s fishing fleet

Abstract

In December 2020, the Scottish Government launched Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy 2020-20301. This strategy sets out a vision for Scotland to be a world-class fishing nation. It aims to deliver responsible and sustainable fisheries management that provides access to high protein, low carbon food. Specifically, the Strategy commits to taking action to understand and mitigate the impacts of climate change on our seas. One key task is to assess how greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions vary by fishing vessel type.

ClimateXChange, on behalf of the Scottish Government, commissioned Seafish to carry out the assessment of GHGs by vessel type. The emissions of interest are constrained to those associated with energy use on the vessel. Emissions associated with onshore activities, from transport and refrigeration, are considered out of the scope of this study. Vessels were classified into segments based on a number of characteristics, including:

• The main gear used by the vessel: e.g. passive or active.

• The length of the vessel and sometimes the power of the engine.

• For demersal trawlers, the main species targeted in value: Nephrops or whitefish.

• For some vessel types, the area where the vessel mainly operates: the North Sea, West of Scotland, Area 7 (Irish and Celtic sea) or the English Channel.

Estimation of fuel use relies on statistical models linking the vessel’s physical characteristics (length, engine power, gross tonnage), vessels’ activity (days at sea) and information on annual fuel use. Methods developed for this project differ from the approach historically developed at Seafish, by using different groups of vessels when developing the statistical models. This change in method improved the robustness of results.