Life Cycle Assessment of fresh hake fillets captured by the Galician fleet in the Northern Stock

European hake (Merluccius merluccius L.), one of the main products in the Spanish diet, represents the highest economic income for Galician fishing fleets. In this study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used to assess the environmental impacts related to the extraction, processing and consumption of European hake captured by Galician trawlers and long liners in the Northern Stock. Furthermore, biological related impact categories, such as by-catch and discards were also considered in the analysis. Results show considerably lower environmental impacts for European hake fresh fillets arriving from long lining vessels, due mainly to the high energy demand of the analyzed trawlers. In this sense, the main part of the impact for hake arriving from both fishing fleets was attributable to marine diesel-linked activities. Post-fishing activities, such as land transport or electricity consumption, were also highlighted as important contributors within their subsystems. Global environmental performance of the system can only be reduced through fuel consumption minimization. However, impact minimization in the fresh hake post-harvesting activities may offer attractive cost reductions for retailers, wholesalers and consumers.

► Environmental impact evaluation through the life cycle of hake fillets consumption.
► Increased environmental burdens for activities linked to fleet diesel consumption.
► Fillets caught by long liners showed lower impacts than those captured by trawlers.
► Fishery energy use reduction is highlighted as the main improvement opportunity.
► Complementary use of LCA + DEA enables fish discards quantification and benchmarking.