Is offshore oil exploration good for benthic conservation?

Abstract

The conservation value of seabed communities varies with location. In particular, a rich sessile epifauna (e.g. sponges and corals) is generally viewed as being of higher value than a species-poor sediment surface, even if this surface supports high diversity below ground. Intrinsic aesthetic appeal, greater vulnerability to activities such as trawling, and their potential importance as a habitat for commercial fish 1xSee all References1, make epifaunal communities particularly worthy of conservation. That the oil industry might represent a positive force for conservation of epifauna is counter-intuitive. Recent events, however, have highlighted two aspects of the oil industry that support this proposition.A key feature of epifaunal communities is that they usually exhibit a patchy distribution, often occurring as small islands of biodiversity on a featureless seabed. Clearly, before such patches can be protected, they need to be located. However, acting alone, most research institutes cannot commit the resources needed to conduct large-scale surveys to identify candidate areas for conservation. By contrast, the oil industry does have the resources and, as part of the licensing agreements for exploration, is usually required to undertake an environmental impact assessment. A recent example from the UK illustrates how such an assessment reaped rich scientific rewards that have benefited benthic conservation objectives.The oil companies operating in the deep water west of Shetland interact through a body known as the Atlantic Frontier Environmental Network [AFEN (http://www.oilandgas.org.uk/issues/home.cfm)]. Representatives of the government, oil industry and conservation bodies, under the auspices of AFEN, undertook large-scale survey work between 1996 and 1999 to document the benthic communities of the Middle Atlantic margin area that were licensed for oil and gas exploration. One species that has been known for 100 years to occur along the margins of the Scottish continental shelf is the cold water coral Lophelia pertusa. The AFEN surveys have provided a much more complete picture of both the distribution of this coral and the high biodiversity of associated organisms that Lophelia colonies support 1xSee all