Evaluation of unavoidable unwanted catches valorisation options: The Bay of Biscay case study

The European legislation establishes that all unavoidable unwanted catches (UUC) must be landed and properly managed, but that their uses should not incentivise their capture. This means that the fishery sector needs to find technically and economically feasible valorisation options for their UUC. This paper uses one representative harbour of the Basque Country as a case study in the Bay of Biscay (BoB) in order to evaluate the profitability of several scenarios. Historical estimations of discards in this case study show that the main UUC, over 95% of them are horse mackerel, mackerel, hake, blue whiting, black-bellied angler, anglerfish and megrim. Following a Multi-criteria Decision Analysis methodology, three valorisation options were selected as potentially the most suitable solution for these discards: minced fish derived products for mackerel or blue whiting, protein hydrolysates for hake and fishmeal and fish oil for all discards. In this paper these valorisation options are the subject of an economic feasibility study. Main economic indicators were calculated for each process in a theoretical simulation for the case study using unfavourable economic criteria, and different scenarios for each solution. Results show that the production of fish burgers from mackerel, hake hydrolysates (as flavouring agent) and fishmeal and fish oil can be profitable within the stated scenario. A sensitivity analysis of main parameters has been also performed. However, despite all these solutions being profitable, the current uncertainties regarding the LO application do not favour investment in new facilities and the use of existing management infrastructures is preferred.