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As part of the Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA7) a seabed sampling survey was undertaken at Anton Dohrn Seamount, Rockall Bank, Hatton Bank, George Bligh Bank and Rosemary Bank. The objective of this cruise were: To carry out a seafloor sampling programme in selected areas within the SEA7 area of the UK Continental Shelf to the west of Scotland. The purpose of this work is to study the ecology of seamounts and other potential Annex 1 (Habitats Directive) type habitats in deep water. The survey to include target areas of the Anton Dohrn and Rosemary Bank seamounts and the George Bligh Bank, northern Rockall Bank and selected areas on the Hatton Bank. The sampling to be guided by a broad survey designed developed in advance of the cruise and modified on the basis of field observations and information generated by geophysical data, including swathe bathymetry, side scan sonar and sub-bottom profiling, conducted immediately previously to this seafloor sampling programme; To similarly carry out seafloor photographic surveys in the same areas; To repeat seafloor sampling at selected stations on transects previously sampled by SAMS during oil-industry related surveys, and the LOIS-SES surveys. 54 video files are available and 1813 photos are available.
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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.
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This report on archaeology is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA7) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). There is a high likelihood of surviving prehistoric archaeology (10,000 - 5000 years old) in certain areas of SEA7, most notably to the west of the Outer Hebrides for a distance of some 10km, to a depth of -20m, and in and among the islands elsewhere (particularly around Islay, Jura, Mull and the Small Isles) along the coast and between S Scotland and N Ireland. The reasons comprise a complex interplay of changing sea level and the rebound of the land once freed from the compression of ice at the end of the last Ice Age. The net result of these physical effects is that 10,000 years ago relative sea level has been up to 45m lower along much of the coast and this corresponds with the period of early human settlement in the area. In places this means that considerable areas of submerged land exist. An investigation of bathymetric, sedimentary and tidal data for the area suggests that the prehistoric land surface, including archaeological remains, may survive in many places. Cooperation between existing extraction companies and renewable industries and archaeologists elsewhere in Britain shows how the recording and investigation of archaeological material could be beneficial to both parties should work take place in SEA7. The final sections provide a preliminary examination of how matters might be taken forward to safeguard the archaeological knowledgebase without prejudicing commercial interests.
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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). Macrofaunal analysis was carried out on sediment samples collected in the Moray Firth between September and October 2003.
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This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA6) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). The report assesses the socio-economic implications of further oil and gas licensing the SEA 6 area. The Department of Trade and Industry provided scenarios of possible exploration and development activity in the area and these scenarios were converted into optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. They were then used to produce forecasts of: oil and gas production; oil and gas reserves; expenditure; employment; and tax revenues. The implications for existing facilities in the area are discussed and the potential social impacts. An underpinning report, Economic and Social Baseline Study, is also available.
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1999 SEA1 (White Zone) - TOBI surveys of the Wyville-Thomson Ridge and the eastern slope of the Faeroe-Shetland Channel carried out during the Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA1. This preliminary report describes the data collection and interpretation carried out by Southampton Oceanography Centre in the summer of 1999. The work was carried out in two survey legs, Leg A was a regional side-scan sonar survey, whilst leg B was a seafloor survey of targets selected from the results of leg 1. This preliminary report is presented in 4 sections: Section 1 - Cruise report for Leg A; Section 2 - Cruise report for Leg B; Section 3 - Regional environmental interpretation from side-scan sonar and camera data; Section 4 - Initial environmental assessment. Raw data and the survey report are available.
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As part of the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment for Area 6 (SEA6) an environmental survey was carried out from Kommandor Jack during October 2003. The aim of the survey was to acquire seabed and water samples for biological, physical and chemical analysis together with video and digital stills photography to ground-truth the geophysical data ans enable a general characterisation of seafloor habitats and community types present within a number of offshore areas containing pockmarks and shallow gas seeps within the Irish Sea. The areas surveyed were: St Georges Wall; Yuan's Pockmarks; Pisces Reef; Texel 11, Codlings Extension; Harvey's Trench; Texel 10. This report provides a log of the field sampling work undertaken.
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As part of the Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA2), this report reviews pockmarks in the North Sea. Pockmarks frequently contain unusual densities of fish, typically large gadoids such as cod, torsk and ling. High densities of fish otoliths have been found in one North Sea pockmark. The existence of cemented sediment in the base of pockmarks can provide a refuge for fish and a hard substrate for colonisation by epifauna such as anthozoa. Deep active pockmarks, such as the three studied in block 15/25, are known to contain species dependent on high sulphide concentrations, originating from seepage or enhanced sedimentation. Some of these species are not found elsewhere in the open North Sea. The 20 m deep "Scanner" pockmark in block 15/25 is the only pockmark in the UK sector of the North Sea whose biology has been studied in detail. It is the only known habitat of the gutless nematode Astononema southwardorum.
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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). This report assesses the socio-economic implications of further oil and gas licensing the SEA7 area. The Department of Trade and Industry provided scenarios of possible exploration and development activity in the area and these scenarios were converted into optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. They were then used to produce forecasts of: oil and gas production; oil and gas reserves; expenditure; employment; and tax revenues. The implications for existing facilities in the area are discussed and the potential social impacts. An underpinning report, Economic and Social Baseline Study, is also available.
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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). It is a synthesis of information describing the seabed habitats, species and communities on the continental shelf of the west of Orkney and Shetland relevant to the SEA 4 area. It provides a summary of the benthic communities and assemblages which inhabit the shallow waters of the SEA4 area, from littoral to offshore areas. A wide range of habitats exist in the area because of the heterogeneity of the seafloor environment, ranging from hard rock sites exposed to the full force of waves and tidal currents to muddy sediments in sheltered inlets. The shelf and offshore areas include varying bedforms of sand and gravel, some of high carbonate content, and considerable amounts of glacigenic material. The epifauna and infauna which inhabit these different environments are summarised. A section of the report discusses the environmental impacts of anthropogenic activities in the area. These include the harvesting of algae from rocky shores, the release of radionuclides on the Caithness coast (Dounreay), dredging for sedimentary material, trawling and mariculture, in addition to the offshore oil and gas industry.