2003 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA4 Technical report - Benthic ecology (Faroe Shetland Channel)

This report was compiled by Southampton Oceanography Centre as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme and provides an overview of surveys of the Faeroe-Shetland Channel, funded by the Atlantic Frontier Environmental Network and by the Department of Trade and Industry which took place between 1996 and 2002. In 1996 the Atlantic Frontier Environmental Network (AFEN) commissioned a largescale regional survey of the West of Shetland seabed environment (AFEN, 2000). The practical conduct of the survey drew on modern technology and techniques for seabed survey (e.g. Sidescan sonar), sampling (e.g. Megacorer) and visualisation (e.g. WASP, seabed photography). These seabed survey tools were operated in an integrated fashion, the sidescan sonar mapping guiding the seabed sampling and visualisation which in turn fed back ground-truthing data for the improved interpretation of the sidescan sonar data. In 1998 AFEN commissioned a further survey, including areas north and west of Shetland and areas in the Rockall Trough. The general concept and approach of the AFEN surveys was then taken forward by the DTI with a survey of the Wyville Thomson Ridge and central axis of the Faroe-Shetland Channel in 1999. The DTI surveys continued with work during 2000 and the completion of SEA4 field work with the 2002 survey to the north of Shetland.

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