aba64100-c108-4de3-e044-0003ba6f30bd English dataset Mary Mowat British Geological Survey (BGS) +44 (0)131 667 1000 +44 (0)131 668 4140 offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk pointOfContact 2011-08-30 MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard Version 2.3.5 urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326 OGP 2001 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA2 Technical report - North sea fish and fisheries 2001-08-01 publication BGS_SEA_18 British Geological Survey This report is a contribution to the Department of Trade and Industry's (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA2, which covers the mature oil and gas fields of the Southern, Central and Northern North Sea. The report reviews the impact of human activity on fish and fisheries in the North Sea and is relevant to both SEA 2 and SEA 3 areas. The North Sea is one of the world's most important fishing grounds. In the central and northern parts there is a mixed demersal fishery that targets cod, haddock and whiting; plaice and sole are trawled in the southern and southeastern North Sea; there are extensive pelagic fisheries for herring and mackerel; crustaceans fisheries for Norway lobster, crab and scallop; and industrial fisheries for sandeel and Norway pout. Commercial fishing itself has the highest impact on fish populations. The various impacts of the offshore oil and gas industry (e.g. seismic surveys, drilling discharges, produced water discharges) are classified as intermediate in scale. The biology of the commercially important fish and shellfish that occur in the offshore waters of the North Sea is discussed. Numerous maps, showing the location of spawning activity and the location of fishing effort, are included. Paul Henni British Geological Survey (BGS) +44 (0)131 667 1000 Murchison House, West Mains Road Edinburgh EH9 3LA UK offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk custodian Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) +44 0300 060 4000 +44 (0) 1823 284077 Admiralty Way London SW1A 2HD UK enquiries@decc.gsi.gov.uk originator notPlanned Documents NDGO0001 Fish behaviour Fish catch statistics Fishery characterisation Habitat extent Industrial activity SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary 2011-03-25 revision Energy resources Production and industrial facilities Species distribution GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2008-06-01 publication crust sediment SeaVoX Vertical Co-ordinate Coverages 2008-06-01 publication 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. intellectualPropertyRights 5 English biota environment oceans society utilitiesCommunication SeaVoX salt and fresh water body gazetteer 2006-01-01 revision North Sea -1.9 3.3 52.8 61.8 2001-01-01 2001-01-01 http://www.offshore-sea.org.uk/site/index.php http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/sea/home.html Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal 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. download dataset This report was prepared by scientists from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) Lowestoft Laboratory with additional data supplied by the Fisheries Research Services Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme. Descriptions of the seasonal distribution of commercially important fish and shellfish described in this report have been prepared using several sources of information. The most reliable of these are the routine research vessel surveys undertaken by European Research Laboratories. These annual surveys, often co-ordinated by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), target major commercial species but also record information on the distribution and abundance of the non-target components of the fish and shellfish catch. Much of the information available from these surveys has already been published in the scientific literature and, as a result of the peer review process, conforms to an acknowledged standard.