Untitled - CNR

Fishery and Sea Resources6. Sale. The fishery catches are directlysold to end-users in a local marketand/or sold to traders and destined toother markets or restaurants.2.4 Functional UnitIt seems clear that the complexity of LCAdoes not allow a direct approach, but systemicand gradual. Preliminary studies relatingto the analysis of product life cycleneed an LCI, as described above. The resultwill lead to the compilation of a ”roadinventory”: this will comprise the use ofresources, functional unit- associated emissions,including substances and chemicalcompounds. The functional unit enablesto highlight the energy performance of theproduct/service for which an LCA is to becarried out [19, 20]. In this case, the functionalunit is represented by kg of dieselfuel needed to produce one kg of food fish:this choice will allow to compare differentLCA developed for other types of fishing.In addition, the same LCI will permitto compare functional units specificallyaddressed to a resource target (red mullet,cod, anchovy, etc.) [21].3 Results3.1 Inventory ResultsThe results of the LCI analysis (Table 1) includeeither data associated to a traditionalLCA approach, or the data characterizingthe sole fishing activity. The quantitativeuncertainties on the materials involved inthe process do not prevent to identify themost important activities for improving environmentalperformance.3.2 FishingThe data on catches and consumption wereobtained using a 9-m long boat practicingtraditional fishing along the coast of the islandof Favignana, equipped with an inboard130 KW Fiat Aifo engine. Duringthe experiment, the marine-weather conditionsand sampling effort were recorded,and the trip as well. The net was hauleddaily and it fished for some hours afterthe dawn. The geographical coordinatesof the starting and ending points of thenet, and the intermediate points as well,were recorded for each minute of positioning.Also, the time spent for positioningand launching the net, as well as thenet immersion time, were calculated. Atthe end of the fishing activity, after thereturn to port, the weighing and measuringof the species, and the economic assessmentof species caught, were carriedout. These data allowed to calculate thecosts and kg of fuel consumed per kilogramof fish produced. 27 fish specieswere caught along 29 days. The catch wascharacterized mainly by two species, i.e.Boops boops and Sardinella aurita, representingrespectively 31.92% and 19.44%of the total catch weight, and 28.14%and 17.14% in terms of economic value.Fish discards were represented by: undersizedand non-commercial species, andpartially looted species of commercial interest.In all three cases, the weight of nontradableproducts was considered irrelevantfor the purposes of life cycle inventory. Infact, both undersized and non-commercialspecies are caught alive, so that they canbe re-introduced into the ecosystem. Furthermore,non-tradable species represent anegligible weight, i.e. less than 1% of thetotal catch.1962