Birna Guttormsdottir, employed by Matís during her completion of her thesis, graduated in May 2009, earning a M.Sc in Environment and Natural Resource at the University of Iceland. Her project analyzed and evaluated the potential environmental impact of two different types of fishing methods, bottom trawled cod versus long line fishing.  Her findings concluded that the most dominating phase within both fishing methods is the fishery phase, which is due to the fossil fuel consumption.  For 1 kg of processed bottom trawled cod, 1.1 litre of fuel was combusted by the vehicle.  In comparison to the long liner cod which utilized 0.36 for the same amount of fish.  When the oil consumption was set to zero for both fishing methods, there was a 73% reduction in carbon footprints for bottom trawled cod and an 85% reduction for long lined cod.  “It can therefore be said that if the fishing vessel would be converted to hydrogen the greenhouse gas emissions would decrease substantially.” 

To see the entire report you may contact Birna at birnag at Umhverfisstofnun.is