From catch to coast: An optimization approach for vessel routing and scheduling in the Nordic fishing industry

Description

The European Union (EU) mandates environmentally friendly, economically viable, and socially sustainable fishing practices for long-term food security, as outlined in the Green Deal objectives. Despite these goals, fisheries heavily rely on fossil fuels, contributing significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions. Efficient routing can help vessels optimize their fuel consumption by considering the shortest distance to the fishing fields, while effective scheduling can prevent over-fishing of specific areas by avoiding excessive fishing pressure during certain times. Moreover, effective scheduling significantly impacts the quality of fish unloaded at the harbor.
Motivated by a real-life case for a company operating in the Nordic fishing industry, we developed a mixed-integer programming model for vessel routing and scheduling considering fuel consumption. It is a complex problem with different types of uncertainty, but the primary source of uncertainty lies in the variability of fish population in fishing fields. The sample average approximation (SAA) approach is utilized to address this issue. Additionally, a heuristic approach has been devised to efficiently solve large-scale problems. Finally, we examined our proposed approach using real data from the corresponding company. Our results highlight how efficient vessel routing and scheduling in the upstream of the supply chain can improve overall supply chain efficiency.

Period	30 Jun 2024 → 3 Jul 2024
Event title	EURO-2024 Copenhagen: 33rd European Conference on Operational Research
Event type	Conference
Conference number	33
Location	Copenhagen, DenmarkShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International