EcoeFISHent demonstrates a replicable systemic and sustainable cluster for territorial deployment of the climate-neutral circular economy by creating six multilevel and synergic circular value chains (CVC) interconnecting blue- and green-economies to reconcile human industrial and economic activities with marine ecosystems and marine protected areas. The EcoeFISHent innovative bio-mass pre-treatment and extraction technologies will enable sustainable and efficient exploitation of fish processing side-streams (FPS) by obtaining bio-actives and galantine for high value-added food supplements and skin care products, biodegradable and compostable barrier layer for food packaging. Other fishing- and fish-industry side-streams (FFS) will undergo the Black Soldier Fly bioconversion to yield innovative soil fertilizer, oil for biodiesel and chitin for cosmetic applications. End of life fishing nets from aquaculture and fisheries will be recycled and converted into automotive polymer-based components and into packaging for cosmetic products. The multilevel interconnected cluster will be managed by a cloud-based platform communicating with physical IoT systems enabling safe and efficient operation of the logistic and transport infrastructure. The cluster busines model and the cluster digital twin will allow simulating critical and optimal scenarios for quantitative analysis of cluster performance measured by dedicated KPIs, also enabling the assessment of the cluster replicability in other geographic areas and fostering investments pipelines. Community and stakeholder?s involvement will be promoted also in the implementation of specific actions for marine ecosystem preservation by modeling, application of better practices and technologies for strongly reducing by-catch and for stopping ghost gears. Social and justice inclusion programs will be implemented by employing disadvantaged individuals, to increase overall cluster employment and to apply distributive justice criteria

The complexity of the problem of banning discards and bringing all unwanted catches to land makes it necessary to follow a multi-actor approach, whereby scientists, fisheries technologists, fish producers and NGOs work collaboratively to provide the scientific and technical basis to achieve the gradual elimination of discards in European marine fisheries. The project’s overall objective is to minimise unwanted catches by incentivising the adoption of fishing technologies and practices that reduce pre-harvest mortality and post-harvest discards, while avoiding damage to sensitive marine species and habitats. The general approach is based on technical/technological and socioeconomic solutions on a case-by-case analysis of the main types of European fisheries. The project will analyze existing and potential discard-mitigating innovative technologies in workshop roundtables with participation of fishers, technologists and scientists. The technologies selected will be tested in field trials to experimentally assess their efficiency: among other, improved precatch identification with observational technologies and pre-harvest loss reduction by gear modification and switching to light impact gear. The results will be analyzed in terms of technological advances, marketability and cost-benefit analysis. Other actions included in the project are social and economic instruments to incentivise selective fishing and discourage discarding practices, such as ecolabelling, fisheries certification and promoting awareness among industry and consumers, and mathematical modelling of ecosystem effects of unwanted catches reduction.