Fisheries Research 76 (2005) 174–186 Life cycle environmental impacts of Spanish tuna fisheries Almudena Hospido a,∗ , Peter Tyedmers b,1 a Chemical Engineering Department, Institute of Technology, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain b School for Resource and Environmental Studies (SRES), Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada Received 3 January 2005; received in revised form 25 May 2005; accepted 27 May 2005 Abstract The environmental impacts of fishing go well beyond their direct effect on targeted stocks and associated ecosystem components and functions. Here we employ life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the scale and importance of emissions that result from the range of industrial activities associated with contemporary Spanish purse seine fisheries for Skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) and Yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) tunas. Our analysis encompassed operational inputs to fishing activities along with major inputs to vessel construction and maintenance and post-harvest transport of carcasses to ports in Galicia, Spain. Data were acquired from fishing operations based in each of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, permitting the characterization of both average and basin of origin-specific environmental impacts. Our results indicate that the production and use of diesel fuel while fishing accounts for more than half of the total impacts in six of the seven impact categories analyzed. After fuel inputs, post-harvest transport of carcasses made substantial contributions to each of the environmental dimensions evaluated. In contrast, the use of anti-fouling paint only made a substantial contribution to marine eco-toxicity potential. Comparing the performance of fisheries in the three oceans, Pacific-based operations resulted in the highest emissions across all impact categories modelled. This was largely the result of markedly higher fuel consumption rates together with relatively long post-harvest transport distances. Finally, we modelled two scenarios to quantify the environmental benefits associated with improving tuna abundance and availability. In doing so, we found that efforts to rebuild stocks, particularly in the Atlantic Ocean would not only help reverse the decline of aquatic ecosystems but could result in improvements in the environmental performance of the Spanish tuna fishery. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Environment impacts; Life cycle assessment; LCA; Purse seine; Tuna fishery ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 981563100x16020; fax: 34 981547168. E-mail addresses: ahospido@usc.es (A. Hospido), peter.tyedmers@dal.ca (P. Tyedmers). 1 Tel.: +1 902 494 6517; fax: +1 902 494 3728. 1. Introduction 1.1. The environmental impacts of fishing Fishing is the last major food producing activity that relies almost entirely on the extraction of organ- isms from essentially wild ecosystems. Consequently, 0165-7836/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2005.05.016