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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.

Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1663538

Energy-consumption monitoring towards decarbonisation: Insights from Basque Albacore artisanal fisheries

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Fundacion AZTI Sukarrieta, Sukarrieta, Spain
  • 2Fundacion AZTI, Pasaia, Spain
  • 3Luonnonvarakeskus, Helsinki, Finland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study presents a low-cost monitoring approach to assess energy consumption and carbon footprint in the Basque artisanal albacore fishery, focusing on two fishing techniques: trolling (LTL) and pole-and-line with live bait (LHP). Using intrusive and non-intrusive monitoring systems, vessel-specific fuel consumption – speed over ground curves (FOC-SOG) were established, enabling accurate estimation of fuel use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across five fishing seasons (2015–2019). The results show that LTL vessels, although having bigger engines, exhibit higher fuel use intensity (FUI: 899.2 L/t) and carbon intensity (2.45 kg CO₂eq/kg landed) compared to LHP vessels (FUI: 632.6 L/t; 1.72 kg CO₂eq/kg landed), due to lower catch volumes and longer distance covered. Despite their higher fuel consumption, LHP vessels achieve greater catches, making them relatively more energy efficient. The study also confirms that vessel speed is a key factor in fuel consumption, validating the use of SOG as a proxy for energy demand. This research demonstrates the feasibility of applying low-cost monitoring strategies to small-scale fisheries, offering a scalable method for evaluating operational patterns and supporting decarbonisation efforts. The findings provide a solid foundation for future energy-saving measures tailored to each fishing technique, contributing to the broader goal of reducing the environmental impact of artisanal fleets.

Keywords: energy monitoring, fisheries decarbonisation, Fuel use intensity, Carbon Footprint, Bay of Biscay

Received: 13 Jul 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Gabiña, Caballero, Goikoetxea, Castresana, Goñi, Sagarminaga and Basurko. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Gorka Gabiña, ggabina@azti.es

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