This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA7) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). Twenty-one cetacean species have been recorded in the SEA7 region. Of these, ten species are known to occur regularly: harbour porpoise, bottlenose dolphin, short-beaked common dolphin, Risso's dolphin, white-beaked dolphin, Atlantic white-sided dolphin, long-finned pilot whale, killer whale, sperm whale and minke whale. Five further species, though not very often recorded, and primarily associated with deep water, probably also occur regularly: striped dolphins, fin whales, northern bottlenose whales, Cuvier's beaked whale and Sowerby's beaked whale. There are occasional at-sea records of a further 6 species: Sei whale, humpback whale, blue whale, northern right whale and false killer whale. Pygmy sperm whales and at least three further species of beaked whale might also be expected in the general area on occasion. In this report, each of the more abundant species is briefly described with particular reference to its distribution and abundance in the SEA-7 area.

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA4) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) . The development of the deep-water oil industry to the west of Shetland led to extensive regional surveys of the seafloor environment, so that the deep-water benthos of the SEA4 area are now at least as well known as in any other deep-water area worldwide. Extensive surveys of the Faeroe-Shetland Channel, funded by the Atlantic Frontier Environmental Network and by the Department of Trade and Industry, took place between 1996 and 2002. This report provides an overview of these surveys. The ecology of the benthos in the SEA4 area is strongly influenced by the hydrography of the region, in particular the complex temperature regime, and by the nature of the seabed sediments. Additional files (xls, doc, cdr) are also available.

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA4) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). This report summarises the geological history of the SEA4 area from Pre-Cambrian times to the present day, sets the framework in which oil and gas fields have been discovered to the west of Shetland, and discusses the seismicity of the area. A generalised geological map of the area is presented and three approximately NW-SE trending sections across the southern part of the SEA4 area are shown. The petroleum geology of the area is reviewed and the geological settings in which oil has been found at the Clair, Foinaven, Schiehallion and Loyal oilfields is described. Other hydrocarbon fields to the west of Shetland, for which there are no immediate development plans, are briefly touched on. The seismicity of the SEA4 area, which is very low, is discussed.

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA4) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). The report is a summary of published data and interpretations describes the surficial seabed geology and geological processes affecting the continental shelf part of the SEA4 area, lying in water depths of less than 200 m. Roughly half of the SEA4 area lies in these water depths. The report reviews the seabed geomorphology, near-bottom currents, types of rock outcrop, variations in the texture of the unconsolidated sediments, the variety and distributions of seabed bedforms and selected aspects of the inorganic geochemistry of the sediments. Variations in the seabed geology have a major influence on the organisms that live on the bottom, thus are important to understanding the modern seabed habitat. The modern seabed environment now largely reflects the effects of reworking by near-bottom currents on the topography and the sediments that originated during the glaciations.

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA5) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). Macrofuanal analysis was undertaken on 61 seabed samples from 13 locations to the southwest of Shetland that were contaminated by oil from the Braer tanker spill. The data report presents the resulting species list and abundance data, together with biomass data and the size measurements of selected taxa.

As part of the Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment 5 (SEA5) a geophysical survey was undertaken on the survey vessel R/V Jean Charcot. The geophysical survey comprised the first phase of a scientific research project devoted to acquiring information about specific aspects of the North Sea Environment and its seafloor habitats. The geophysical survey was required to provide high resolution maps of the seafloor in SEA 5 areas of interest. Swath bathymetry, side scan sonar and shallow geophysical reflection data were acquired as part of the geophysical survey. No seabed samples were collected.

As part of the UK Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) ongoing sectorial Strategic Environmental Assessment a seabed survey programme (SEA5) was undertaken between August and early October 2003 for the UKCS areas lying between Scotland and Orkney and Shetland. This report summarises the sediment trace metal data generated from the analyses of selected samples from the study areas detailed: Fair Isle; Outer Moray Firth A; Outer Moray Firth B; Smith Bank; Southern Trench.

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA5) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). The purpose of this report is to present an up-to-date synthesis of current information on the benthic environment and the benthic communities and associations in the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) region 5 and, additionally, to highlight areas considered to be particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic influences. The synthesis has been prepared from the information available on seabed habitats, species and communities to the east of Orkney and Shetland and extending down the east coast of Scotland. The area includes the major east coast features, the Moray Firth, the Firth of Forth, and the Tay estuary, and the inner Firths of Dornoch, Cromarty and Inverness, the Ythan Estuary and the Montrose basin.

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA5) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). Cephalopods are short-lived molluscs, characterised by rapid growth rates, and are important predators and prey in oceanic and neritic environments. They can range in size from 1.5 cm in pygmy squid (Sepiolidae) to 20 m in giant squid (Architheutidae). Cephalopods exhibit the highest degree of development in invertebrate nervous systems, expressed through complex behaviour patterns such as the ability to learn and the display of complex colour changes. In contrast to other molluscs, most cephalopods lack an external shell, are highly mobile as adults and occupy similar ecological niches to predatory fish. This report focuses mainly on the species of fishery importance: the loliginid squid Loligo forbesi and the ommastrephid squid Todarodes sagittatus and Todaropsis eblanae together with the octopus Eledone cirrhosa. Brief accounts of other commonly occurring cephalopod species are also provided.

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA5) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). An integral element of any environmental assessment for offshore oil and gas exploration, and for possible nearshore renewable energy proposals, involves a review of potential sites of conservational importance within the region of interest. For the purpose of SEA 5, this is especially important given the scale of the area in question and the fact that it includes the coastal zone which is known to support a large number of conservation sites. The SEA 5 area displays a wide variety of habitat types such as coastal cliffs, rock platforms, beaches and dunes. The area also includes major estuaries such as the Tay and the Forth. Some of these habitats are rare in a national and/or international context, and many support important numbers of bird colonies, seals and, in the Moray Firth, dolphins. This report identifies and locates coastal and nearshore sites within the SEA 5 area which are protected by international, national and local conservation designations as well as describing the sites and reasons for their protected status. The coastal conservation sites are listed according to whether they are of international, national or local importance.