Are the smallest fishing vessels the most sustainable?—trade-off analysis of sustainability attributes

This article discusses application of systems engineering principles and trade-off analysis of sustainability in the fishing fleet. Sustainability in the fishing fleet may be characterized by seven attributes measured by performance indicators. Evaluations show that the energy consumption is higher for the Norwegian ocean going fleet than the coastal fleet, whereas the opposite is the case for the number of fatalities. An important part of the systems engineering process is analysis and optimization of system alternatives. Thus, the main objective of the article is to investigate ranking of the sustainability attributes, which implies use of multi-attribute decision-making methods. The analytic hierarchy process was used to interview stakeholders to the fishing fleet about their preferences. The article concludes that if “accident risk” is weighted as the most important attribute, the smallest fishing vessels are not as sustainable as often claimed.