1) One enterprise refers to the owner of one or more vessels. Therefore the number of enterprises is slightly smaller than the number of vessels, represented in the statistics.
Fishery (fiskeri)

Denmark
2000

Many different kinds of fish and shellfish are available in the seas around Denmark and many of the species are targets for Danish fishermen. The Danish fishery has been divided into seven categories and the definitions of each category as well as the geographical location of main fishing sites are shown in Table 1. The nomenclature of fishing categories are based on Fødevare-økonomisk Institut (2001).


Table 1: Characteristics of seven distinct fishing categories.

Fishing category

Definition1)

Geographical location of main fishing sites2)

No.

Name

1

Atlantic cod fishery

Atlantic cod makes up more than 2/3 of the total SCV3)

Eastern Baltic and the North sea

2

Atlantic cod, European plaice and Common sole fishery 

Atlantic cod, European plaice and Common sole make up more than 2/3 of the total SCV although neither Atlantic cod nor flatfishes comprise more than 2/3 of the total SCV

North Sea, Skagerak, Kattegat, the belt seas, the sound as well as west and east Baltics

3

Flatfish fishery

Flatfish make up more than 2/3 of the total SCV

Widely spread over the Danish sea territory.

4

Norway lobster, codfish and flatfish fishery

More than 2/3 of the total SCV come from Norway lobster, codfish and flatfish, where Norway lobster comprises more than 1/3 of the total SCV and more than both codfishes and flatfishes each

Skagerak and Kattegat

5

Herring, mackerel and industrial fish

More than 2/3 of the total SCV come from herring, mackerel and fish for reduction (industrial fish), but fish for reduction comprises less than 2/3 of total SCV

North Sea, Skagerak as well as the sound and the Eastern Baltics

6

Industrial fish

More than 2/3 of the total SCV comes from fish for reduction

North Sea

7

Mixed fishery

Specialized fisheries targeting eels, blue mussels, common shrimp, northern prawn and other

Eels: the sound and the Baltic. Blue mussels: Limfjorden. Common shrimp: North Sea and Skagerak.  Northern Prawn: North sea

1) Source: Fødevareøkonomisk Institut (2001), 2) Source: Fiskeridirektoratet (2001), 3) Standard Catch Value.  
 

Process description

Fishing vessels equipped with diesel engines are used for all professional fishing in Denmark. The sizes of vessels vary depending on local conditions, traditions and target species. The average sizes of fishing vessels considered here are shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Average size of fishing vessels (Gross tonnage, GT) for fishing categories 1 to 7 (Fiskeriøkonomisk Institut, 2001).

Fishing Category

No. 1

No. 2

No. 3

No. 4

No. 5

No. 6

No. 7

Codfish

Codfish/ flatfish

Flatfish

Lobster

Pelagic

Industrial fish

Mixed fish

Average size of vessels, GT

16

25

40

46

620

329

57

The average age of fishing vessels is more than 30 years, but the diesel engines applied are generally modern and well maintained (see Thrane, 2003).

The exact types of fishing gear applied in the considered fishing categories is unknown. Hence, the methods usually applied for various groups of target species is provided in Table 3.

Table 3. Fishing methods used for the most important groups of species in Danish Fishery in 1999. Deviations of totals from 100% are due to rounding (source: Fiskeridirektoratet, 2001).

  Group of fish

Demersal fish

Shell fish

Pelagic

Industrial fish

  Target fish

Atlantic
cod

European plaice

Norway lobster

Shrimp

Blue mussels

Herring

Mackerel

  Unspecified

0

0

2

37

0

0

0

14

  Hooks and
  lines

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

  Traps etc.

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

  Beam trawl

1

18

0

19

0

0

0

0

  Pound net

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

  Gill net

29

14

0

0

0

0

0

0

  Hooks

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

  Pair trawl

10

0

0

1

0

51

34

21

  Mussel            dredge etc.

1

0

0

0

96

0

0

0

  Purse seine

0

0

0

0

0

37

56

5

  Danish seine

10

32

0

0

0

0

0

0

  Trawl

49

32

97

41

0

11

10

53

  Other

1

2

1

2

3

1

0

7


The catch is usually a mix of various species depending on local conditions in the sea, time of the year, equipment applied etc. The total mass of catches in various fishing categories in 2000 is shown in Table 4. The original structure of fishing categories in Table 1 has been adjusted slightly to provide accurate data on most possible species: Fishing Category 2 and 3 have been merged and Fishing Category
5 has been separated into herring and mackerel fishery. For further details, see Thrane (2003).
During springtime, the industrial fish, sand eel can be caught almost without by-catches. Specific data on sand eel catching in this period are available here: sand eel.

Table 4: Total catches in fishing categories 1 to 7 in 2000 (kg per enterprise1).

Fishing

category

No. 1

No. 2 + 3

No. 4

No. 5a

No. 5b

6

No. 7a

Codfish

Codfish/
Flatfish

Norway lobster

Herring

Mackerel

Industrial

Shrimp and prawn

No. of enterprises

370

419

182

23

23

96

438

Codfish

69.202

35.773

32.764

14.019

5.616

11.616

44.921

Flatfish

8.401

53.470

19.505

164

66

3.308

25.925

Shrimp & prawn

30

120

8.652

25

10

1.363

14.816

Norway Lobster

136

110

19.648

184

74

102

3.088

Mussels

1

23

25

0

0

16

250.502

Herring

14.574

6

3.370

2.842.571

0

247.251

90.859

Mackerel

2

16.460

12

0

1.137.807

2.910

17.841

Industrial fish

6.367

223

17.199

3.074.313

1.231.447

8.265.482

485.861




Data collection and treatment

Data on catches and fuel consumption are based on fishermen’s records and have been collected by the Danish Institute for Food Economics. In cases where the exact figure for fuel consumption has not been available, the fuel consumption has been estimated by dividing the fuel costs with the average price for fuel over the year. For the details, see Thrane (2003).

Emissions to air from fishing vessel’s diesel engines have been estimated by multiplying diesel consumption with emission factors specific for European fishing vessels (European Environment Agency, 2001). It has been assumed that all vessels have “middle speed engines”. The sulphur content of diesel (which determines SOx- emission) has been estimated to 0.15% based on records from Texaco Esbjerg, a major diesel supplier to the fishing fleet.


Technical scope

The following processes are included: steaming to and from the fishing site, fishing operation and eventual cool storage of fish on board. Constructing and maintenance of the vessels are not included although exchanges may be of some importance (Tyedmers, 2001). Emissions of solid and liquid organic matter from onboard treatment of fish (in particular codfish and flat fish which are gutted on-board) are not included 1) because the fish would die anyway and the disposal of fish residuals does not change any balances in the sea (e.g. carbon, nitrogen or phosphorous) and 2) because the waste is mostly dumped on open sea and local impacts in the coastal zone do not need to be considered.
 

Representativity

More than 99 % of the total turnover in the Danish fishery has been included and the data provides an almost complete coverage of the Danish fishery. Fuel consumption per kg of catch has increased slightly during the last two decades. This development is supposedly going to continue and exchanges associated with fishery are expected to increase slowly (see Thrane, 2003).
 

Validation

See Trane (2003).
 

Inputs and outputs

Table 5 shows inputs and outputs associated with
fishing in each fishing category.
Specific data on sand eel catching can be found here: sand eel.


Table 5: Inputs and outputs associated with various categories of fishery.
Data are provided per kg of mixed fish (natural wet weight of the entire animal) unloaded in the harbour. 

 

 

Demersal fish

Shell fish

Pelagic

 

No. 1

Atlantic
cod

No. 2+3

European plaice

No. 7a

Shrimp/
prawn

No. 4

Norway lobster

No. 7b

Blue mussels

5a

Herring

5b

Mackerel

6

Industrial fish

Inputs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diesel, litres

0.37

0.63

0.18

1.56

0.012

0.12

0.06

0.07

Outputs

 

 

 

 

 

 

   


Landed fish
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Codfish, kg

0.70

0.34

0.066

0.32

0

0.0024

0.0024

0.0014

Flatfish, kg

0.085

0.50

0.038

0.19

0

0.000028

0.000028

0.00039

Shrimp/prawn, kg

0.00030

0.0011

0.022

0.085

0

0.0000043

0.0000043

0.00016

Norway Lobster, kg

0.0014

0.0010

0.0045

0.19

0

0.000031

0.000031

0.000012

Mussels,kg

0

0

0

0

1.00

0

0

0

Herring,kg

0.15

0.000058

0.13

0.033

0

0.48

0

0.029

Mackerel,kg

0.000019

0.16

0.026

0.00012

0

0

0.48

0.00034

Industrial fish, kg

0.065

0.0021

0.71

0.17

0

0.52

0.52

0.97


Air emissions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CO2, g

991

1688

482

4179

32

321

161

188

CO, g

2.3

3.9

1.1

9.8

0.075

0.75

0.38

0.44

NOx, g

17.8

30.3

8.7

75.1

0.58

5.8

2.9

3.4

SOx, g

0.94

1.6

0.46

4.0

0.030

0.30

0.15

0.18

NMVOC, g

0.75

1.3

0.37

3.2

0.024

0.24

0.12

0.14

N2O, g

0.025

0.043

0.012

0.11

0.00081

0.0081

0.0041

0.0047

CH4, g

0.094

0.16

0.046

0.40

0.0030

0.030

0.015

0.018

Location in database: Material/Food from primary sectors/Fishery/

 

 

References

European Environment Agency (2001). EMEP/CORINAIR Emission Inventory Guidebook - 3rd edition. Technical report No 30. (Group 8: Other mobile sources ).

Fiskeridirektoratet (2001). Skønnede fangstoplysninger for 1999 fordelt på tonnage og redskab. Fiskeridirektoratet, 3. kontor (statistik sektionen). In Danish.

Fødevareøkonomisk Institut (2001). Fiskeriregnskabsstatistik 2000 . Rapport -Serie F nr. 6.  Ministeriet for Fødevarer. Landbrug og Fiskeri. København. In Danish.

Thrane M. (2003). Environmental impacts from Danish fish products. Ph.D. dissertation, Aalborg University (Denmark). Department of Development and Planning. In preparation.

Administrative information

Data URL: http://www.lcafood.dk/processes/fishery/fishery.html
Version no.: 1.00
Authors: Mikkel Thrane, Department of Development and Planning, Division of Technology, Environment and Society (Division 3), Aalborg University and Per H. Nielsen, 2.-0 LCA consultants
Data entry: Data have been entered in this format by Mikkel Thrane and Per H. Nielsen
.
Data completed: July 2003.