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). Cephalopods are short-lived molluscs, characterised by rapid growth rates, and are important predators and prey in oceanic and neritic environments. They are active predators at all stages of their life-cycle and generally regarded as opportunistic, taking a wide variety of prey. Cannibalism has been frequently recorded in cephalopod species. Cephalopods also sustain a number of marine top predators such as fish, birds and marine mammals, especially whales. Many species are powerful swimmers and carry out vast feeding and spawning migrations, thus influencing prey and predator communities strongly on a seasonal and regional basis. As cephalopods are important elements in food webs they interact with commercial fisheries of finfish. Evidence exists that fishing pressure has changed ecological conditions and shifts in community structures have occurred with cephalopod stocks slowly replacing predatory fish stocks. Their commercial significance to world fisheries is of relatively recent, but growing, importance. From a commercial point of view, the most important cephalopod species in the SEA6 area is Loligo forbesi, which is landed as a by-catch of the demersal trawl fishery (82 tonnes in 2002). But the species Alloteuthis subulata, although of no commercial value, has an important ecological role in the coastal food webs, since it is the most commonly recorded cephalopod species in the stomach contents of demersal fish in UK waters.

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 SEA 5 area covers parts of the central and northern North Sea to the east of the Scottish mainland, Orkney and Shetland. The area supports different users and activities, many of which are focussed in particular coastal and marine areas. This report presents an initial overview of the coastal population of the SEA 5 area and the industries and activities which utilise the SEA 5 area including: Oil and gas activity; Commercial fishing; Fisheries for migratory species; Ports and shipping; Mariculture; Military activity; Telecommunication cables; Renewable energy; Aggregate extraction; Marine disposal; Tourism and leisure; Locally important activities; Coastal and marine archaeology; Coastal and marine management initiatives

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). This report reviews published and newly-acquired seabed geological data in an area of 78,000 square kilometres extending from the coast to more than 200 m water depth to the east of the British Isles. While it can be argued that the modern environment is a product of past environmental conditions, the basis for the review is also that our understanding of the modern environment can be significantly improved if new techniques, data and ideas are applied to a revision of the existing research knowledge. The purpose of the review is to place the characteristics of the seabed features that were surveyed by the DTI in 2003, and the processes forming them, into an improved understanding of their historical, local and regional context. In this way a strong element of the review is to include the results from exploration and discovery. The survey data included multibeam, sidescan sonar, seismic-reflection profiles, sea floor photographs and samples.

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.

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 SEA4 area includes the most northerly part of the UK continental shelf, north of the Shetland Islands between the international boundaries with Norway and the Faroe Islands, and the area to the west of Shetland and the Orkney Islands. Starting with scenarios of possible exploration and development activity in the area provided by the Department of Trade and Industry, this study provides forecasts of oil and gas production, expenditure, employment and tax revenues. The impacts of future oil and gas developments in the SEA4 area on the local economies of Shetland and Orkney will be small in comparison to what has happened in the past. The main impact will be to postpone or to slow down the decline in UK oil production. Nevertheless, production from fields in the area could make significant contributions to overall UKCS production, employment and tax revenues, as well as extending the lives of facilities such as the Sullom Voe and Flotta terminals. It could help to retain employment and population in the area.

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA3) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). The report is a synthesis of information on human activities which might have an impact on, or themselves be affected by, further oil and gas developments in the SEA3 area of the North Sea. The activities include shipping, energy (both existing oil and gas developments and renewable energy), telecommunications, military activities, waste disposal, dredging and aggregate extraction, marine archaeological sites and wrecks. The SEA3 area hosts a wide variety of different users. Some have been there for centuries, others are more recent arrivals. Among the older industries and activities are fisheries, ports and shipping, military activities and sea bathing. The offshore oil and gas industry has developed into a major player in the North Sea since the late 1960s, with considerable infrastructure of pipelines and coastal gas terminals in the SEA3 area. The number of submarine telecommunication cables across the North Sea has grown enormously in the past ten years, with the advent of the fibre optic cable and the growth of the Internet and e-commerce. The next twenty years may see considerable development of offshore wind farms in the SEA3 area.

As part of the Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA4) a geophysical survey of the UKCS north of Shetland (Northern Triangle) was carried out. The objectives were to collect EM120 multibeam and backscatter data over the northernmost area of the UKCS, known as the northern triangle (an area defined approximately by the points 60 30 N, 03 30 W, 61 0 N, 01 40 E and 63 50 N, 0.5 W). The aims were to: create a regional bathymetric map of the northern triangle in the water depths between 600 and 2400m; obtain regional EM120 backscatter data over the same area; define the extent of the mud diapir province discovered during previous reconnaissance TOBI and seismic cruises; create high resolution bathymetric and backscatter maps of specific features, such as the mud diapirs; carry out a reconnaissance survey of the shallow water part of the northern triangle (200 and 500m water depth) collecting both bathymetry and backscatter data using an EM1002 multibeam system; complete, during the cruise, a preliminary interpretation of the above data, to be used as a guide for the sampling and seabed photography cruise which followed immediately. Multibeam and chirp seismic data and sidescan sonar data were collected. Data are available. 21 processed multibeam files are available. Raw data, backscatter mosaics and bathymetric contours also available. Seismic data are also available. Cruise Report is also available.

This report is a contribution to the Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA2. Eight marine mammal species occur regularly over large parts the North Sea: harbour seal, grey seal, harbour porpoise, bottlenose dolphin, white-beaked dolphin, Atlantic white-sided dolphin, killer whale and minke whale. A further 15 cetacean species and five pinniped species are reported less frequently in the region. This report describes the distribution and abundance of these mammals and their ecological importance. The harbour porpoise is the most numerous marine mammal in the North Sea, with a population estimated at 268,000 in summer 1994. The northern and central SEA2 areas are particularly important areas for the harbour porpoise. Marine mammals make use of sound for a variety of purposes: finding prey, detecting predators, communication and probably navigation. The offshore oil and gas industry generates underwater noise at every stage of the process: during exploration seismic surveys, drilling, production and decommissioning. The effects of these different sources of underwater noise on marine mammals are discussed. The use of explosives for underwater cutting and demolition during the decommissioning of platforms and installations may pose a serious threat to some marine mammals. The effects of pollution on seals and cetaceans are discussed, including the effects of oil spills. Large whales can be killed by being struck by ships; increased shipping traffic in an area would increase this threat.

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.

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 identifies coastal and near-shore conservation sites within the SEA4 area which are protected by international, national and local conservation designations as well as describing the sites and reasons for their protected status. At the northern extremity of Britain, the SEA4 area combines very productive waters with spectacular and distinctive coastal scenery. The combination of rich food sources and relative lack of disturbance make it host to abundant bird populations, including rare species not found elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Among the conservation sites are sea inlets, mud and sand flats, lagoons, salt marshes, sand dunes, shingle, sea cliffs, fresh water bogs and marshes, heath, scrub and grassland.