Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Deboned Milkfish Production in Thailand

Abstract

Milkfish (Chanos chanos) is one of the fisheries products that are cultured among countries in Southeast Asia. Milkfish processing, particularly deboned milkfish, is available in the market and the demand of this product is increasing as a protein source. The increase of deboned milkfish demand in Thailand stimulates production units to expand their production line. However, the official information about the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions of milkfish rearing and deboned process is still unknown. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the GHG emissions from the production of deboned milkfish. The result revealed that CO2 emission was the major GHG of the deboned milkfish production. The CO2 emission from all units was 16.47 kg and the main source of emission was the use of electricity. The N2O emission of all units was 4.99 kg and the major source of emission was the ebullition from milkfish ponds. Emission of CH4 of all units was 0.06 kg and the main source of emission was the ebullition from milkfish ponds. The emissions of N2O or NOX exhibited the highest global warming potential in terms of kgCO2 eq. This finding suggests that improvement of fish ponds environment particularly the microbial activities in the bottom of the ponds should be considered. Good practice of feeding process, water quality control and maintaining the water depth in the pond can help to reduce the GHG emission. Application of alternative energy such as wind and solar energy can help to reduce the use of electricity and the reduction of CO2 emissions.