The Fish We Feed Fish: An Evaluation Of Primary Production Requirements And Greenhouse Gas Emissions Of Reduction Fisheries In The Age Of Sustainable Boundaries

Abstract

Human society has placed substantial demands on the limited natural environment through increasing resource use and waste production. One of the greatest demands is the increasing appetite for animal-based food products. Thus, it is necessary to quantify relative merits and demerits of the relative and cumulative extent of impacts of food production sectors. This thesis evaluates the global scale of fishmeal and fish oil products from dedicated reduction fisheries towards two areas: global climate change and appropriation of primary production. To evaluate the impacts of these products, advancement to the current method for assessing primary production required in life cycle assessment was necessary. This thesis demonstrates that reduction fisheries’ products are not equally impactful, and that greater consideration should be given to their use from both an efficiency and total impacts perspective. This work is contextualized with a focus on humanity’s safe operating space.