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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.
British Geological Survey (BGS)
Other details | ||
Internal code | Internally assigned metadata identifier | 787 |
Title | The title is used to provide a brief and precise description of the dataset such as 'Date', 'Originating organisation/programme', 'Location' and 'Type of survey'. All acronyms and abbreviations should be reproduced in full. | 2001 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA2 Technical report - Background information on marine mammals in the North Sea |
File Identifier | The File Identifier is a code, preferably a GUID, that is globally unique and remains with the same metadata record even if the record is edited or transferred between portals or tools. | aba64100-c10b-4de3-e044-0003ba6f30bd |
Resource Identifier | This is the code assigned by the data owner. | BGS_SEA_21 |
Resource type | The resource type will likely be a dataset but could also be a series (collection of datasets with a common specification) or a service. | dataset |
Start date | This describes the date the resource starts. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2001-01-01 |
End date | This describes the date the resource ends. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2001-01-01 |
Spatial resolution | This describes the spatial resolution of the dataset or the spatial limitations of the service. | 5 |
Spatial resolution unit | This describes the unit of spatial resolution which for distance must be metres. | http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/ISO_19139_Schemas/resources/uom/gmxUom.xml#m |
Frequency of updates | This describes the frequency with which the resource is modified or updated i.e. a monitoring programme that samples once per year has a frequency that is described as 'annually'. | notPlanned |
Abstract | The abstract provides a clear and brief statement of the content of the resource. | 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. |
Lineage | Lineage includes the background information, history of the sources of data, data quality statements and methods. | The report was prepared by scientists from the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) Gatty Marine Laboratory, University of St Andrews in August 2001 using a variety of sources as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme. There is extensive information on the distribution and abundance of grey seals around Britain from annual aerial surveys of breeding colonies and from over 100 animals fitted with satellite-relayed data loggers. Information on harbour seals is available from aerial surveys and VHF telemetry. There is also extensive information on distribution in the North Sea from a number of summer sightings surveys (SCANS-94, NASS-89 and NILS-95). Estimates of abundance are available from these surveys for some species. There are also many records from year round surveys by the European Seabirds at Sea Consortium (ESAS) since 1979, from cetacean observations made during seismic surveys in 1996-98, and sightings by voluntary observers compiled by the Sea Watch Foundation. |
Additional information | This describes relevant references to the data e.g. reports, articles, websites plus other useful information not captured elsewhere. | http://www.offshore-sea.org.uk/site/index.php |
Related keywords | ||
Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | NDGO0001 |
Keyword title | NERC OAI Harvesting | |
Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Cetacean behaviour |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Cetacean morphology and physiology | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Cetacean abundance | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Industrial activity | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Industrial discharges | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Seal behaviour | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Seal morphology and physiology | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Seal abundance | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Species distribution | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | crust | |
General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | sediment | |
Geographical coverage | ||
North | The northern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 61.8 |
East | The eastern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 3.3 |
South | The southern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 52.8 |
West | The western-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | -1.9 |
Responsible organisations | ||
Role | The point of contact is person or organisation with responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the metadata for the resource. | pointOfContact |
Organisation name | British Geological Survey (BGS) | |
Individual name | Mary Mowat | |
Phone | +44 (0)131 667 1000 | |
Fax | +44 (0)131 668 4140 | |
Role | The custodian is the person or organisation that accepts responsibility for the resource and ensures appropriate care and maintenance. If a dataset has been lodged with a Data Archive Centre for maintenance then this organisation is be entered here. | custodian |
Organisation name | British Geological Survey (BGS) | |
Individual name | Paul Henni | |
Phone | +44 (0)131 667 1000 | |
Delivery point | Murchison House, West Mains Road | |
Postal code | EH9 3LA | |
City | Edinburgh | |
Country | UK | |
Role | The originator is the person or organisation who created, collected or produced the resource. | originator |
Organisation name | Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) | |
Phone | +44 0300 060 4000 | |
Fax | +44 (0) 1823 284077 | |
Delivery point | Admiralty Way | |
Postal code | SW1A 2HD | |
City | London | |
Country | UK | |
Resource locators | ||
Locator URL | Web address (URL) that links to the resource | http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/sea/home.html |
Locator name | Name of the web resource | Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal |
Locator function | Code that describes the function of the resource. ISO function code chosen from ISO 19115-1 Codelist | download |
Dataset constraints | ||
20 Limitations on Public Access - Access constraints | ISO restriction code chosen from ISO 19115-1 Codelist | intellectualPropertyRights |
21 Conditions for Access and Use - Use limitation | Any restrictions imposed on accessing the resource such as the need to agree to certain licence conditions. | 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. |
Available data formats | ||
Data format name | Format in which digital data can be provided for transfer | Documents |
Version info | ||
Date of publication | The publication date of the resource or if previously unpublished the date that the resource was made publicly available via the MEDIN network. | 2001-08-01 |
Metadata date | The date when the content of this metadata record was last updated. | 2011-08-30 |
Metadata standard name | The name of the metadata standard used to create this metadata | MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard |
Metadata standard version | The version of the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard used to create the metadata record | Version 2.3.5 |
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