Estimating the carbon footprint of Tasmanian fishing vessels

Life cycle assessments (LCA) are conducted to understand the environmental impacts associated with various products. In order to convey quality information to the consumer that can be guaranteed to provide comparability between products and ease of communication, the PAS 2050 specification produced by the British Standards Institute was utilised. The functional unit assigned to the calculation of the carbon footprint was one kilogram of edible yield delivered to the distribution centre. This paper aims to demonstrate the implementation of a LCA for the Tasmanian scallop fishery by analysing two fishing operations within the industry. The final value for the assessments were 3.16 kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) and 2.19 kgCO₂e for vessel A operating in the Bass Strait and the eastern Tasmania fishing zone respectively, while vessel B had a final value of 3.89 kgCO₂e.