The Environmental Impact of Two Australian Rock Lobster Fishery Supply Chains under a Changing Climate

Abstract

Summary Understanding the potential future impacts of climate change along the supply chain for highly traded fisheries products can inform choices to enhance future global seafood security. We examine the supply chains of the Australian tropical rock lobster fishery (TRL) and southern rock lobster fishery (SRL), with similar destination markets but different catch methods and fishing communities. A boat‐to‐market analysis allows for comparison and illustration of the effects of single supply‐chain aspects. We used life cycle assessment to provide an overview of the environmental footprint, expressed as global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication, and cumulative energy demand, for two lobster products: live animals and frozen tails. The export phase contributed 44% and 56% of GWP of live‐weight lobster for SRL and TRL, respectively. The SRL fishery currently produces 68% of the combined 1,806.7 tonnes of lobster product and 78% of the combined global warming for the two fisheries over the whole supply chain. We develop climate adaptation options that: (1) reduce the overall footprint; (2) consider alternative supply‐chain strategies (e.g., reduce cost); and (3) predicted impact of future climate change. Adaptation options include: more direct export routes and change in the export transport mode. Value adding and product differentiation, which can level out seasonality and thus spread risk, is likely to become increasingly important for both increases and decreases in predicted climate‐induced abundance of fish species.

Adaptation of Fishing Communities to Climate-Driven Shifts in Target Species

“…8,62,63 In addition, shifts can cause indirect repercussions on the processing and supply-chain industries of the associated fisheries. 64 The degree of impacts on the fishery depend on the flexibility of the markets as well as on consumer preferences. Markets can become more volatile, an effect that could magnify as resources decrease.…”

Linking Production and Consumption: The Role for Fish and Seafood in a Healthy and Sustainable Australian Diet

“…For aquaculture, the type and amount of feed is an important consideration, given the production of feed ingredients often dominates LCA results (see, e.g., [26,27]). In addition to the sustainability of production, the product yield and post-harvest losses can influence the sustainability of products [21] as can the mode of transport and energy source used for processing [28,29]. Seafood LCAs have predominantly addressed global-scale abiotic resource use and emission-based environmental impacts, such as global warming, toxicity and eutrophication [20].…”

Indirect Impacts of COVID-19 on a Tropical Lobster Fishery’s Harvest Strategy and Supply Chain

“…Previous studies have identified the need to build resilience to changing climate as an increasingly important challenge to supply chains (Levermann, 2014;van Putten et al, 2016;Lim-Camacho et al, 2017). COVID-19 has confronted supply chains with similar disruptions to transport and markets as climate change is predicted to do, and hence we have applied the same method to analyze the connectivity of supply chains and to identify the key agents in these chains which may be fragile and hence in need of focused attention.…”