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.
