Oil and gas platforms a haven for white fish

OIL and gas platforms are increasingly being used as habitat havens for commercially important fish species such as cod and haddock, a marine ecologist told the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity in Aberdeen yesterday.

Dr Toyonobu Fujii, a researcher from Aberdeen University’s Oceanlab, said offshore platforms and installations being built for offshore renewable energy projects could in future be used to create man-made reefs for vital fish populations.

Dr Fujii has been analysing long-term bottom trawl survey data of fish distribution in relation to the installation history of offshore oil and gas platforms in the North Sea.

He told the conference: “There are currently no fewer than 500 offshore installations extracting oil and gas primarily from the continental shelf in the North Sea and, since the first installation, more and more researchers have been aware that a variety of commercially important fish species such as cod, haddock and saithe gather in substantial numbers around these artificial structures.

“Currently, all the offshore platforms and the safety zones around these platforms, combined, account for only 0.08 per cent of the surface area of the North Sea.

“However, the proportion of fish abundance estimated to aggregate around these structures was much higher than the surface area alone would suggest.”

Dr Fujii continued: “We still don’t know exactly why they are gathering there. It could be because there are more feeding opportunities or possibly because they provide places for them to shelter or hide.

“But if they are using these habitats as nursery or spawning grounds then the implications of the physical presence of these structures could be important.”