Wild fish (Vilde fisk)

The demand for wild fish in European Union is larger than the regional sea’s supply capacity and the Danish and European fishery is embraced by quota (Ministeriet for Fødevarer, Landbrug og Fiskeri, 2002) to limit fishery. Hence, the extent of Danish fishery is independent of demand and environmental impacts associated with fish whether they are fresh or processed are determined by the products, which they substitute rather than the processes associated with catching and processing.

It is unknown what kinds of food are most likely to substitute specific wild fish and until more knowledge becomes available any food product such as chicken, pork, cattle, farmed fish, vegetables or bread can be appropriate. Thus, the potential environmental impacts associated with a demand for wild fish (codfish, flatfish, herring, mackerel, lobster, shrimp and mussels) equals the environmental impacts associated with for instance some of the following products.

Possible substitutes for wild fish

Pork (
tenderloin, ham, steaky bacon, minced meat etc.)

Cattle (tenderloin, fillet, steak, knuckle shank, round, minced meat etc.)

Chicken

Farmed fish (trout)

Vegetables

Bread

The environmental impact associated with wild fish demand would be determined by fishing processes and processing in fish industry if the quota regime was removed from fishing and the extent of fishery was determined by the market. The figure below shows the main processes influenced by a demand for fish exemplified with cod fish in an envisioned scenario that market regulates the extent of fishery.

 
figur 1: Market based product chain diagram for cod fishery covering the most important processes in terms of contribution to global warming, in an envisioned scenario that the extent of cod fishery is regulated by market demand. Boxes refer to production processes. Names of grey boxes refer to the main product of the processes. Red arrows represent material or energy transfer between two processes; green arrows represent saved material or energy transfer as a result of displacements; green lines represent displacements and red lines represent avoided displacements. Further details can be found in the LCA model.

Cod fishery is the most important process in terms of codfish catch and it assumed that the extent of cod fishery will be changed if the market demand for cod fish changes. A variety of other fish (herring, flatfish, mackerel etc.) are caught as side catch during cod fishery and the environmental impacts associated exclusively with codfish have been determined by system expansion. The other categories of fishery (herring fishery, flatfish fishery, and mackerel fishery) have side catches as well and the environmental exchanges associated with these "secondary side catches" have also been eliminated by system expansion, explaining the large number of red and green lines in the figure. Se also Thrane (2003).

The table below show the potential environmental impacts associated with fish demand ex harbor, ex fish industry and ex retail store in an envisioned scenario that the fishing quota regime is released. Data are provided per kg of fresh fish (entire animal) or fish product.
 

Cod fish

Impact category

 

Unit Fresh cod fish Fresh codfish fillet

Frozen cod fillet

 Ex harbor

Ex
retail
Ex fillet factory

Ex retail

Ex fillet factory

Ex retail

Global warming

g CO2-eq.

1200

1200 2700 2800 2800

3200

Acidification

g SO2-eq.

14

15 31 32 31

32

Nutrient enrichment g NO3-eq. 24 25 55 55 55 56
Photochemical smog g ethene eq. 1.7 1.8 3.8 3.9 3.8 4.0
Land use m2 year not relevant not relevant -1.1 -1.1 -1.1 -1.1

Location in database: Material/Food from primary sectors/Fishery/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Cooling counter/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Freezing counter/ or Material/Food from industery/Food from fish industry/


Flat fish

Impact category

 

Unit Fresh flat fish Fresh flatfish fillet

Frozen flatfish fillet

 Ex harbor

Ex retail

Ex fillet factory

Ex retail

 Ex fillet factory

Ex retail 

Global warming

g CO2-eq.

3300

3300 7400 7400 7500

7800

Acidification

g SO2-eq.

40

40 88 88 88

89

Nutrient enrichment g NO3-eq. 68 69 152 153 152 154
Photochemical smog g ethene eq. 4.8 4.9 11 11 11 11
Land use m2 year not relevant not relevant -1.1 -1.1 -1.1 -1.1

Location in database: Material/Food from primary sectors/Fishery/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Cooling counter/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Freezing counter/ or Material/Food from industery/Food from fish industry/


Herring

Impact category

 

Unit
Fresh herring
Fresh herring fillet

Frozen herring fillet

 Ex harbor

Ex retail
Ex fillet factory
Ex retail

Ex fillet factory

Ex retail 

Global warming

g CO2-eq.

580

630

1300 1300 1400

1800

Acidification

g SO2-eq.

7.1

7.4

14

14

14

15

Nutrient enrichment g NO3-eq. 12 13 25 25 25 26
Photochemical smog g ethene eq. 0.86 0.95 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.9
Land use m2 year not relevant not relevant -0.72 -0.72 -0.72 -0.72

Location in database: Material/Food from primary sectors/Fishery/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Cooling counter/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Freezing counter/ or Material/Food from industery/Food from fish industry/

Mackerel

Impact category

 

Unit
Fresh mackerel
Fresh mackerel fillet

Frozen mackerel fillet

Ex harbor
Ex retail
Ex fillet factory
Ex retail

Ex fillet factory

Ex retail 

Global warming

g CO2-eq. 170

220

460 510 620

960

Acidification

g SO2-eq. 2.1

2.4

4.1

4.4 4.2

4.9

Nutrient enrichment g NO3-eq. 3.6 4.1 7.6 8.2 7.9 9.1
Photochemical smog g ethene eq. 0.25 0.34 0.54 0.63 0.55 0.68
Land use m2 year not relevant not relevant -0.72 -0.72 -0.72 -0.72

Location in database: Material/Food from primary sectors/Fishery/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Cooling counter/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Freezing counter/ or Material/Food from industery/Food from fish industry/


Industrial fish

Impact category Unit Ex harbor

Global warming

g CO2-eq. 220

Acidification

g SO2-eq. 2.6
Nutrient enrichment g NO3-eq. 4.5
Photochemical smog g ethene eq. 0.32
Land use m2 year not relevant

Location in database: Material/Food from primary sectors/Fishery/


Lobster

Impact category Unit

Fresh lobster

 Ex harbor

Ex retail 

Global warming

g CO2-eq.

20200

20200

Acidification

g SO2-eq.

250

250

Nutrient enrichment g NO3-eq. 420 420
Photochemical smog g ethene eq. 30 30
Land use m2 year not relevant not relevant
Location in database: Material/Food from primary sectors/Fishery/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Cooling counter/

Shrimp

Impact category

 

Unit Fresh shrimp

Peeled and frozen shrimp

 Ex harbor

Ex retail 

 Ex factory

Ex retail 

Global warming

g CO2-eq.

2940

3000

1010

10500

Acidification

g SO2-eq.

38

38

115

120

Nutrient enrichment g NO3-eq. 65 65 197 198
Photochemical smog g ethene eq. 4.5 4.6 14 14
Land use m2 year not relevant not relevant -1.7 -1.7

Location in database: Material/Food from primary sectors/Fishery/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Cooling counter/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Freezing counter/ or Material/Food from industery/Food from fish industry/


Mussels

Impact category

 

Unit
Fresh mussels

 Ex harbor

Ex retail 

Global warming

g CO2-eq.

40

90

Acidification

g SO2-eq.

0.48

0.82

Nutrient enrichment g NO3-eq. 0.83 1.4
Photochemical smog g ethene eq. 0.058 0.15
Land use m2 year not relevant not relevant

Location in database: Material/Food from primary sectors/Fishery/ or Material/Food from supermarket/Cooling counter/

References

Ministeriet for Fødevarer, Landbrug og Fiskeri (2002). Kvoter 2003. In Danish.pdf.

Thrane M. (2003). Environmental impacts from Danish fish products. Ph.D. dissertation, Aalborg University (Denmark). Department of Development and Planning. In preparation.