Quantifying Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Associated with Global Seafood Production

Global fisheries are heavily reliant on fossil fuels, contributing significantly to the rise in global greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. While satellite technology is commonly used to monitor land-based emissions (and ocean-based emissions of shipping vessels), studies primarily estimating ocean-based emissions in the fishing sector remain limited. In collaboration with the Environmental Markets Lab (emLab) and Global Fishing Watch, this project leverages novel, high-resolution satellite-based datasets to provide precise insights into the emissions associated with global fisheries. We develop a reproducible, extensible, and open-source data processing pipeline to connect emissions data with seafood production data, along with an interactive dashboard to explore the resulting dataset. Our findings enable new research opportunities and offer actionable data to identify major emissions contributors, potentially facilitating new policy and market-based interventions to reduce fisheries-related emissions at scale. 

Acknowledgements

We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to our clients and advisors whose support and expertise have made this project possible. Your willingness to guide us, share ideas, provide insightful feedback, and commit precious time has been invaluable in ensuring that our project yields meaningful results while reflecting thoughtful analysis.   

We are especially grateful for our client and faculty advisor: Gavin McDonald, Senior Project Scientist, Environmental Markets Lab (emLab), Bren School of Environmental Science & Management 

We also thank the following individuals for their support: 

Bren School: Dr. Steve Gaines, Dean & Distinguished Professor;  Dr. Carmen Galaz García, Assistant Teaching Professor;  Dr. Bruce Kendall, Professor & Associate Dean; Sandy Sum, Teaching Assistant & Ph.D. candidate

emLab:  ES Burns, Project Scientist;  Pol Carbo Mestre, Data Scientist 

Global Fishing Watch:  Tyler Clavelle, Senior Data Scientist