Best practices in life cycle assessment implementation in fisheries. Improving and broadening environmental assessment for seafood production systems

A total of 33 publications have been reviewed in order to determine the current state-of-the-art of LCA development in fishery based seafood production systems, focusing mainly on methodological innovations and the different assumptions that are taken into consideration in the different stages of LCA. The assessment revealed a strong proliferation of LCA in seafood systems in recent years, but unequal levels of methodological development. Based on this evaluation, the article proposes a simple and straightforward guideline to set a common denominator for future seafood system LCA studies. Finally, innovation pathways that may potentially turn LCA into a more integrated methodology to evaluate the environmental performance of seafood systems are discussed throughout the review.

► A set of articles were reviewed to analyze LCA development in fishery based seafood products.
► Recent methodological innovations and assumptions were the center of analysis.
► Current trends in all four stages of LCA were examined referred to seafood systems.
► A set of best practices were proposed as a reference base for future studies.