Decarbonisation of Fishing Vessels: Policy Challenges and Areas of Concern in View of Accident Investigation and Inspections.

Objective: The fisheries sector is essential to the economies of developing countries, but it is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Although emissions can be substantially reduced through energy efficiency measures, compliance with the Paris Agreement of 2015 requires further action through national frameworks for the decarbonization of fishing vessels. The objective of this paper is to explain the impact in greenhouse gas emissions from fishing vessels, discuss the possible regulatory indexes that could be made applicable to fishing vessels and how these ships can transition to alternative and low carbon fuels, identifying the main challenges in view of accident analysis and inspections.

Methods: It is recognized that mandatory indexes developed at the International Maritime Organisation are not feasible to apply, so new indexes are needed and possibly connected to fish captures. Most of these zero or near zero greenhouse gas emission fuels require technical and operational measures for accident prevention but, due to high rates of accidents related to fire, explosion and inhalation of gases, their use can lead to increase the rates of fatalities in an already dangerous profession. The main problem for their use is ventilation, enclosure of machinery spaces leading to preventive and design measures for the use of batteries and electricity and suitable training.

Conclusion: To avoid accidents, additional extra measures would be needed for fishing vessels. Therefore, to ease the transition towards new fuels those which are more similar to fossil marine diesels should be used; notwithstanding the use of other sources of energy such as solar and wind power.