Project

Through the project 'Fiskens Fodaftryk', extensive work has been done to uncover key challenges related to assessments of the climate impact of Danish fisheries ('CO2 footprint') through life cycle assessments (Life Cycle Assessment, LCA). 'Fisheries' in this context covers the catch stage, although subsequent stages such as processing and transport also contribute to the climate impact of fish products via CO2 emissions related to these stages.

On a general level, the project has explored different methodological approaches, the importance of assumptions, data availability, and partly the communication challenges that may arise when calculating the climate impact of Danish fisheries. Ultimately, the project's results can contribute to future opportunities to work in a targeted and documentable manner to reduce the climate impact of Danish fisheries, where this is possible and appropriate. The project's insights will also be relevant in the context of the development of consumer-oriented environmental and climate labels or campaigns.

The project has focused in particular on examining the possibilities and limitations of making climate impact assessments based on data that is continuously and systematically collected at the national level for (approximately) the entire fisheries sector. Such an approach could potentially make it manageable to continuously produce uniform assessments that cover the entire fisheries sector, as models and data processing procedures can thus be applied uniformly and effectively to the entire sector.

The project is funded by the Fisheries Tax Fund 2020-2021, and the output and activities from the project are made available continuously via this page.

In Jammerbugt in Skagerrak, some of the most intensively fished Danish sea areas are found. The area is particularly characterised by the fact that all of the most important types of Danish fishing methods for demersal fishing for food fish take place. This applies to gillnets, which are fixed fishing gears, as well as beam trawls, purse seines and trawls, which are bottom-towed fishing gears. The different gears physically affect the seabed in different ways. Fixed fishing gears have relatively low impact and are therefore not included in this project. The habitats on the seabed in the area and the fauna associated with them have not been studied in particular detail. This is important in terms of being able to assess the effect of bottom-towed fishing gears.

There has therefore been a desire to have the impacts from bottom-towed fishing gears, with a main focus on beam trawls, investigated. Through monitoring work in 2023, this research project has investigated fishing activities, the impact of bottom-towed gears, habitats, fauna and biodiversity in general. Many different monitoring tools have been used to provide a broader understanding of these conditions, including: sidescan sonar, vessel satellite data, underwater drone, underwater video camera, towed Ockelmans sled, Van Veen grab for bottom samples, sound recordings and e-DNA. Taken together, the studies provide new general insight into marine nature and impacts from fishing activities with bottom-tow fishing gear in Jammerbugt.

The overall aim of the project is to deliver a set of fully-costed ecosystem management options that would deliver the objectives of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Habitats Directive, the European Commission Blue Book and the Guidelines for the Integrated Approach to Maritime Policy. This will be achieved by (i) providing a comprehensive knowledge base to support policy for the development of sustainable and integrated management of European marine ecosystems; (ii) developing Operational Objectives to achieve the High-Level Policy Objectives set by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Habitats Directive, and with reference to the proposed Maritime Policy; (iii) identifying Management Options (individual management tools and combinations of tools) to meet the Operational Objectives; (iv) providing a risk assessment framework for the evaluation of Management Options and to assess the risk associated with the different options; (v) conducting a cost-benefit analysis of a range of Management Options using appropriate techniques; (vi) identifying stakeholder opinions on the creation of governance structures directed towards implementation of the ecosystem approach, and elaborating different scenarios for changing governance structures and legislation to facilitate a gradual transition from the current fragmented management approach towards fully integrated ecosystem management; (vii) documenting the steps necessary for the transition from the current fragmented management scheme to a mature and integrated approach, and providing a toolkit that could be used to evaluate options for delivering ecosystem-based management; and (viii) communicating and consulting on the outcomes of the project effectively with policy makers and other relevant user groups.

The vision of MareFrame is to significantly increase the use of ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management (EAFM) when providing advice relating to European fish stocks. A more widespread use of EAFM is encouraged through development of new tools and technologies, development and extension of ecosystem models and assessment methods, and development of a decision support framework that can highlight alternatives and consequences. I addition, a widespread use of EAFM depends not only on collaboration with stakeholders in general, but on close integration and co-creation with stakeholders in all development phases, to ensure that ownership lies with them, and to increase the chance of acceptance and uptake of the project outcomes.

The Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) coordinates the European funded COST Action OceanGov (Ocean Governance for Sustainability – Challenges, Options and the Role of Science), chaired by Anna-Katharina Hornidge.

During the 4-year term of the project, ZMT brings together scientists, policy-makers and civil society representatives from 29 COST Member States to create and coordinate a research network for inter- and transdisciplinary research on ocean governance in the EU.

Thematically the network concentrates on the following six governance challenges:
Land-Sea Interactions
Area-Based Management
Seabed Resource Management
Nutrition Security and Food Systems
Ocean, Climate Change, and Acidification
Fisheries Governance

Within these six fields existing scientific research on different scale levels, regions and sustainability challenges is systematical being brought together and prepared in the form of integrated advice on governance tools and mechanisms to improve ocean related decision-making.

This is an international researcher-practitioner collaboration to co-produce a conceptualisation of marine identity.
The collaboration aims, via workshops, shared writing tasks, and networking platforms, to co-produce an academic paper for publication on the nature and types of marine identities.

What does it mean to identify with the marine? Are there universal aspects to this? To what extent does it affect the relationship between humans, other humans, and the coast? The paper will engage with such questions and this collaboration will aim to create space for follow on work and opportunities in developing knowledge in this space.

The overarching objective of VALID (Verification through Accelerated testing Leading to Improved wave energy Designs) is to de-risk the whole WEC design process in terms of components reliability and survivability by developing an integrated and open platform for the testing of critical components and subsystems, proposing novel testing procedures going beyond current testing practices. As a consequence, it will facilitate developers to take sound design decisions at early stages of technology developments.

Wave power is one of the most reliable resources for renewable energy utilisation. However, the development of high-performance wave energy converters (WECs) is a complex challenge and requires a solid framework of evaluation tools. The EU-funded VALID project will focus on developing and validating a new test rig platform and methodology for accelerated hybrid testing that can be used across the wave energy sector. By improving the reliability and survivability of the components and subsystems that form WECs, the project aims to establish a standard for future use.

Moorings of floating oil and gas (O&G) structures present surprisingly large failure rates. A top solution is a redundancy in the design. However, marine renewables cannot afford such redundancy in the mooring design to obtain a competitive levelised cost of energy (LCOE). The EU-funded ISLINGTON project will reduce uncertainties in the estimated fatigue damage of mooring cables due to soil-cable interaction in the touch-down zone (TDZ) and the economic cost for marine renewables. ISLINGTON will improve the numerical modelling of the cable-soil interaction in the TDZ for mooring cables, generate experimental data for mooring line trenching and perform a numerical investigation of the effect of trenching on the fatigue of mooring cables.

The Code of Conduct project focuses on development of codes of conduct for sustainable and responsible fisheries in Denmark. Codes of conduct for sustainable fisheries at general level (UN and EU) already exist. The project intends to integrate market and management interests in a process where fishermen formulate the specific code of conduct for their fishery. By analysing expectations and demands regarding sustainable and responsible fisheries from public management and from central market actors such as large European supermarket chains, the project will provide the fishermen with information of usefulness of a code of conduct: Can the code be a tool for fishermen to "take back responsibility" in management, and can it support attempts to get a higher value out of the catch? The general framework for codes of conduct and a specific code of conduct for the pelagic fishery will be formulated in interaction with the fishermen and their organisations.

The project consists of four phases: 1) Analysis of trends in demands and expectations to sustainable fishery from central market interests and the management system. 2) Development of a general framework for codes of conduct within Danish fisheries. This will be discussed with representatives from the catch and processing sectors as well as management. 3) Development of a specific code of conduct for sustainable and responsible fisheries within the Danish pelagic fishery. In this phase the project team will help fishermen from the sector and the Danish Pelagic Producer Organisation formulating their own code of conduct. 4) Communication of the experiences from the project through a conference, articles and a folder with guidelines for a framework of codes of conduct for sustainable and responsible fisheries and for how to involve the fishermen in the specific fishery.

This Bubble Project aims to assess the feasibility of revamping offshore oil and gas infrastructures transforming them into units producing methane from wind power.