Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Indian Oil sardine Fishery of Kerala, India

Abstract

The pelagic fishery resources play a significant role of fish production in India. Small pelagics such as the Indian oil sardine and Indian mackerel together contribute 21% of the marine landings. Ring seining is one of the most efficient fishing methods used for small pelagic fishery in India and the state of Kerala in the south west coast is the major contributor. Ring seines contribute 51% of the marine fish landings and 98.8% of sardine landings of Kerala. Kerala is said to be the birthplace of ring seine and at the time of introduction, ring seine were operated from small canoes with very low power engines. Presently ring seines are operated with large number of high power motorised and mechanised vessels. In this study, an Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is used to analyze the environmental burdens associated with the Indian oil sardine exploited by mechanised, motorised and traditional ring seine fishing systems. The analysis encompassed operational inputs to fishing activities, inputs to fishing craft and gear construction, maintenance and service life of fishing system. This is done using material wise analysis for ring seine fishing systems in detail and is the first of its kind in Indian fisheries. Results show that in oil sardine landings, fuel used for fishing contributed more than half of the total impacts in eight of the ten impact categories analysed. Motorized ring seine fleet is having higher impact when compared to mechanized ring seine fleet except for ADP element and ODP, due to the high use of lead weight and polyamide webbing in mechanized fleets. Impact of motorised fleet ADP fossil, AP, EP, GWP, HTP and POCP showed more than 20% impact than mechanized fleet with a higher value of 24% in GWP. Through this study some important interventions are proposed for the improved efficiency of this fishery.