Fishing Intensity - UK Fishing Intensity Associated with Oil and Gas Pipelines (2007-2015) – (All Gears; Demersal Trawls; Dredges; Nephrops Trawls)

The layers were created following the methodology of Rouse et al. (2017) ‘Commercial fisheries interactions with North Sea pipelines: considerations for decommissioning’ ICES Journal of Marine Science (see link in ‘Data Sources’ tab below).

VMS position data were filtered by speed to distinguish active fishing from steaming. The point-data were interpolated into tracks, accounting for the speed and heading of the vessel, to obtain a greater spatial resolution of fishing activity. Each pipeline was divided into 1 km sections. The total number of fishing tracks, extending 500 m either side of the pipeline, was calculated for each 1 km section according to four gear categories: dredging, Nephrops (otter and pair trawls), demersal (otter, pair and beam trawls), and all mobile demersal gear (dredging, Nephrops and demersal amalgamated).

The layers will aid the pipeline decommissioning process by facilitating the assessment of the risks associated with different decommissioning options to commercial fisheries.  These layers will facilitate determining the optimal frequency of post-decommissioning monitoring according to level of fisheries interaction and risk modelling for operational pipelines.

This work was undertaken as part of a NERC Oil and Gas Innovation project ‘Optimising decommissioning of oil and gas pipelines with respect to the commercial fishing sector on the UK continental shelf’ (NE/P016537/1) which is a collaborative research programme led by the Scottish Association for Marine Science involving Marine Scotland Science, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Oil and Gas UK, The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation. See link in ‘Additional Information’ tab below.

Recommended steps for using these data in environmental statements can also be found in the "Additional Information" tab.