2002 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA3 Technical report - Marine mammals, North Sea (Addendum to SEA2 report)
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) and is an addendum to "SEA2 Technical report 005 - An overview of plankton ecology in the North Sea" by same authors. 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 the most numerous marine mammal in the North Sea, with a population estimated at 268,000 in summer 1994. The northern parts of the SEA3 area are important for the three most abundant cetacean species in the North Sea: minke whale, harbour porpoise and white-beaked dolphin. Harbour seals occur widely in the SEA3 area. 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.
dataset
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/sea/home.html
name: Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal
description: The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS.
function: download
BGS_SEA_35
British Geological Survey
eng
OGP
urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
http://www.offshore-sea.org.uk/site/index.php
biota
environment
oceans
revision
2011-03-25
Species distribution
publication
2008-06-01
publication
2008-06-01
-1.9
3.3
61.8
52.8
revision
2006-01-01
2002-01-01
2002-01-01
publication
2002-01-01
notPlanned
Report produced by Sea Mammal Research Unit and University of St Andrews as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme. The report was compiled using various sources. There is good quantitative information for the most abundant cetacean species from a variety of sightings surveys: the Small Cetacean Abundance in the North Sea (SCANS) survey that took place in June to July 1994; the North Atlantic Sightings Surveys (NASS-89) that took place in July 1989 and the Norwegian Independent Line transect Survey (NILS-95) that took place from July to August 1995. There are also published sightings from year-round surveys by the UK Seabirds at Sea Team (SAST) conducted between 1979 and 1990, from cetacean observations made during seismic surveys in 1996 to 1999 and sightings by voluntary observers compiled by the Sea Watch Foundation. Extensive information on the distribution and abundance of grey seals around Britain is available from studies carried out by the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU). These include annual aerial surveys of breeding colonies to estimate pup production and population size, and data from over 100 animals fitted with satellite-relayed data loggers. Information on harbour seals is drawn from a variety of sources; the most detailed information is from aerial surveys conducted by SMRU.
The SEAs data were produced as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme; Crown Copyright, all rights reserved. The DECC SEA must be acknowledged in any maps or publications that make use of the data. All the data files are freely available to the public. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS. BGS (NERC) has been contracted by DECC to publish SEA datasets on its behalf. All intellectual property rights (including , without limitation, copyrights, database rights and all other rights which subsist or may at any time in the future subsist in the Dataset(s)) in the Dataset(s) ('Intellectual Property Rights') are owned by DECC (formerly the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform). BGS has been authorised by DECC to use SEA datasets for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit basis'. BGS has been authorised by DECC to pass on SEA datasets to third parties so that they can use them for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit' basis.
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Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
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originator
British Geological Survey (BGS)
+44 (0)131 667 1000
+44 (0)131 668 4140
pointOfContact
2011-08-30