Decarbonisation of the fishing fleet in the Mediterranean and Black Sea
Framework :
European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA)
Start date:
2023-12-05
Ref :
SC07
End date:
2025-12-05
The proposal of the DecarbonyT project aimed at determining a future direction towards high potential fishing fleet improvement.
The overarching aim of this Specific Contract is to assess to what extent the use of optimized trawling gears in the Mediterranean and Black Sea can lead to lower fuel consumption and a more decarbonized fishing fleet.
The following towed fishing gears are covered: otter trawlers (OTB); beam trawls (TBB); and pelagic trawlers (OTM).
decarbonization, fuel saving fishing gears
The proposal of the DecarbonyT project presented on the draft Inception report (D01) aimed at determining a future direction towards high potential fishing fleet improvement. The following towed fishing gears were initially covered: otter trawlers (OTB); beam trawls (TBB); and pelagic trawlers (OTM).
These are amongst the fishing techniques with highest fuel consumption (Sala et al., 2022; European Commission, 2023; Ziegler and Hornborg, 2023) and with higher vulnerability to fuel price variation and taxation. Additionally, for these fisheries fuel consumption is a large part of operational cost and have a strong impact on profitability.
Pelagic pair trawl (PTM) is not used in the GSA29 (Black Sea), therefore pilot sea trials will investigate improvements in OTM fisheries (single-boat pelagic trawling) of the Black Sea. Regarding the Mediterranean, partners originally proposed a pilot study on “Shifting from pair-trawling to single-boat trawling” in the Adriatic Sea (GSA17-19). Shifting from pair-boat to single-boat pelagic trawling was considered as a potential improvement assuming no increase of fishing effort and catch efficiency.
