Methodological choices of LCA applied to aquaculture systems: A critical review & recommendations.

Seafood is a main diet component in many countries. Until recently, its production came predominantly from fisheries, but with a majority of fish stocks being now fished at full or unsustainable capacities, seafood production is turning to aquaculture (FAO 2016). However, seafood farming has several potential impacts on the environment and human health, such as eutrophication of surrounding water bodies, climate change, water consumption or land transformation (Naylor et al. 2000; Diana 2009). It is therefore important to ensure that aquaculture development takes place in a sustainable way. In that context, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely applied to aquaculture production systems over the last decade. However, how has the LCA methodology been applied? Which methodological choices did the authors take, and to what extent were they appropriate to answer their research questions? To answer these questions, a critical literature review, new in its coverage of studies and depth of analysis was conducted, whose objectives were to analyze the relevance of methodological choices in relation to the research goals of the studies, and establish a set of recommendations for LCA practitioners to improve the quality and comparability of future studies.