What to Do with Unwanted Catches: Valorisation Options and Selection Strategies

27 pages, 8 figures, 7 tables.-- This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseThe European Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has established a landing obligation (LO) and the need for proper management of bycatches without incentivising their capture. Food use is the priority option but only unwanted catches (UWC) above minimum conservation reference size (MCRS) can be used for direct human consumption. As a result, other options, such as animal feeds, industrial uses or energy, should be considered to valorise landed < MCRS individuals. Two approaches have been developed to help select the best available option for processing UWC. The first methodology is based on a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) that considers technical, economic and market criteria. As a sample case, we chose the Basque fleet fishing in the Bay of Biscay, developed within the H2020 DiscardLess project. The second approach is based on the simultaneous analysis of both economic and environmental aspects. This was applied to the case of Spanish bottom trawlers operating in ICES sub-Divisions VIIIc and IXa. Finally, various food products and bio compounds from typical UWC biomass were obtained in a pilot food processing plant developed within the LIFE iSEAS projectDiscardLess project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under grant agreement no. 633680. Life iSEAS has been co-funded under the LIFE+Environment Program of the European Union (LIFE13 ENV/ES/000131)Peer reviewe