Sustainable harvest of marine resources by Senior scientist Aud Vold, Fish Capture Group The Ny-Ålesund Symposium Planet Ocean 19-21 Sept 2016
The Center for Research based Innovation in Sustainable fish capture and Processing technology An active cooperation between innovative companies and research institutes Funded by the Norwegian Research Council and the industry partners
Global food production
Global fish production 2014 - Total production: 167mt: 93mt from capture 74mt from culture - Only 2% of global food although biomass production is equal to that on land
There is a number of challenges linked to sustainable harvest of fish : Environmental impact (bottom habitat interference and air pollution) Bycatch and discarding while fishing Discard mortality and fish welfare Fuel consumption and greenhouse gases Product quality and value adding Consumer demands for sustainable harvesting
The philosophy of Well managed fish resources Efficient fishing technology High catch-value Fish assessment Fisheries regulations Surveillance Efficient fish finding instruments Gear control / monitoring Low environmental impact Catch quality Consumer acceptance Eco-labelling Profitable fisheries and support industries
The main objective of CRISP: To develop smart technologies that will make harvest from the ocean more sustainable, while at the same time making Norwegian fishing industry into leading suppliers of equipment and seafood to a global market Profitability through sustainaility
The consortium: Institute of Marine Research Host Research partners Kongsberg Group AS Industry partners Public partners
Environmental costs of food production There is no such thing as free lunch: The extraction of food for human consumption will always change the environment, often dramatically, and there are always costs associated with it, both in ecological and economic terms. This is of course true both for food from the oceans and from land. How significant those costs are for capture fisheries, how they are viewed by different stakeholder, and how to minimize them, is a challenge. Hilborn and Hilborn, 2012
Environmental effects of trawling Trawling alters ecosystems, but to varying degrees Still, heavily trawled areas, like the Barents Sea, continues to produce large amounts of fish on a sustainable basis. The impacts depends very much on habitat While soft muddy bottoms seem to recover rather quickly after trawling, hard bottom with sessile species may be severely damaged for generations So in order to minimize the effects of trawling we need habitat mapping (e.g. Mareano) and protection of sensible habitats like coral beds
Fishing activity - VMS data: Large areas of the Barents sea is being fished each year. Despite this, our major demersal fish stocks (cod, haddock, saithe) is in excellent condition.
Vulnerable habitats Data from Mareano www.mareano.no
Ways to reduce bottom impact of trawling Pelagic and semipelagic trawling Manouverable trawl doors Lighter ground gears But not all fish are distributed pelagic varies with species, age and season The efficiency is often lower Fisheries regulations are not always in favour of pelagic trawling (cod) Pelagic trawling Semielagic trawling
Other ways to reduce bottom impact of trawling Switch to other fishing methods But all fishing gears have negative side effects Hook and line: bait problem fish and fishermans welfare Gillnets: gost fishing quality issues Traps and pots: Not efficient for all species and areas
How to reduce bycatch and incidental mortality If we could identify the fish before setting the fishing gear (species, size, volume) Then we didn t have to waste time setting our gear on nontarget fish and maybe kill them If we could see what enters our fishing gear while it still is on bottom Then we could change area or stop fishing if unwanted fish enters our gear If we could lead unwanted catch out of the fishing gear while fishing Then we could reduce bycatch and unintended mortality substantially
The CRISP solution: To develope measuring instruments for fish identification (both for stock assessment and capture) Echo sounders and sonars Instrumentation for gear monitoring E.g. camera control of catch at fishing depth or inside seines Environmentally friendly and selective fishing gears That may actively or passively release unwanted catch
New generation fish identifcation instruments
Deep Vision: A camera system to monitor fish entering a trawl. Identification of number, species and size. Will be coupled to an active sorting devise.
DeepVision: Winner of the Innovation Prize at Nor-Fishing Aug 2016
Reduced fuel consumption for Norwegian whitefish trawlers Estimated fuel consumption Litres fuel per kilogram catch 180 0,8 0,7 160 0,7 140 0,6 0,6 120 0,5 0,5 100 0,4 0,4 80 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 0,3 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 Bent Dreyer, pers com. 2016
First-class fish quality is important for prices and stable demands for fish products What is important for fish quality? Type of gear and how it is used Good fish welfare before slaughtering adds to fish quality Either stunn and bleed the fish immediately or let the fish restitute before slaughter Low temperature Restititution 0 3 6 h
Quality is the main focus from pre-catch to delivery Next generation fishing trawler based on CRISP values. Hopefully finished by 2018 Catch size regulation Avoiding pulling the cod-end up the slipway. Reducing pressure on fish Low pressure/vacuum directly to the receiving bin Live fish tanks 2 x 50 m 3, 500 kg/m 3 50 tons capacity - 12-18 hours production Rapid mechanical slaughtering
Main message Development of new smart technologies may lead to sustainable fisheries and at the same time give profit for the companies involved S 1 S 2S 3 S 4 S 2 NEW KNOWLEDGE, TECHNOLOGY AND VALUE ADDING New generation of trawlers
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Potential sources for increased harvest from the oceans Current fisheries and aquaculture: 167mt Increased sustainable harvest from traditional fisheries Utilize offal from fisheries Utilize bycatch/discards Harvest of zooplankton Mesopelagic fish Algae: TOTAL (2030): Doubled catch volume?