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Oil and gas pipelines that lie exposed on the seabed can function as "artificial reefs", providing habitat for fish and benthic species, including some that are listed under conservation designations. As the offshore hydrocarbon industry matures, operators and national governments must decide whether decommissioned pipelines should be left in situ or removed for onshore disposal. In most jurisdictions, there is a requirement to evaluate the environmental consequences of different pipeline decommissioning options in a comparative assessment. To do this effectively requires an understanding of the associations between pipelines and fauna. Pipeline operators routinely collect video footage for inspection and maintenance purposes using remotely operated vehicles (ROV). This footage has the potential to provide insight into interactions between the marine environment and offshore pipelines. This study uses inspection footage from eight pipelines to quantify the presence and abundance of species and features listed under a number of EU and UK conservation designations; 12 such features and species were observed on the pipelines or neighboring sediments. The soft coral Alcyonium digtatum was present in the highest densities on pipelines located on mud, while Sabellaria sp. and Echinus esculentus were more common on pipelines in sand. Gadoids, anemones and hermit crabs were also frequently observed around pipelines. The study also suggests that faunal identification from ROV footage depended on image resolution, ROV speed and altitude, and lighting, and taxa <50 mm in size could not be reliably classified. The results suggest that removal of pipelines will remove established colonies of epibenthic species, some of which have conservation value. The ecological significance of this loss, however, must be weighed against the broader considerations during pipeline decommissioning including cost, technical feasibility and impacts to other marine users.

Numerous pipelines have been installed in the North Sea to support offshore oil and gas extraction. Pipeline decommissioning options include full and partial removal, as well as in situ decommissioning, either with or without intervention. The choice of decommissioning strategy has social, economic and safety implications for commercial fisheries, according to the type and intensity of fishing in the vicinity. Assessing the impacts of decommissioning strategies on fisheries and mitigation options is an essential step in the decommissioning consenting process. It is important that fisheries impact assessments employ the best available data that are capable of resolving the fine-scale spatial patterns that are known to exist in pipeline-fishing overlaps. This paper describes the development of geographic information system (GIS) layers that provide high-resolution fishing intensity data for individual pipeline sections. The layers were created using fishing data extracted from the vessel monitoring system (VMS) for UK vessels operating mobile demersal gear between 2007 and 2015. The layers are freely available to download via the Scottish Government's National Marine Plan Interactive (NMPi). The layers provide a common evidence base for industry, regulators and stakeholders to assess the impacts of different decommissioning options to commercial fisheries during the decommissioning process.

The lochs, voes and sheltered coastal waters of the Scottish west coast and Western and Northern islands provide ideal conditions for growing salmon in floating cages. The aquaculture industry creates jobs not only on farms but also in upstream and downstream activities such as producing fish feed, in logistical support, and in processing the fish. Nevertheless, its growth during recent decades has encountered economic, societal and environmental challenges, which are likely to increase as the industry expands from 163,000 tonnes in 2016 to about 200,000 tonnes in 2020, with the intention to produce up to 300,000 tonnes in 2030. In 2018 the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee will be conducting an inquiry into salmon farming in Scotland. To feed into that inquiry the Environmental Climate Change and Land Reform Committee will be considering the current report. Briefing by Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) on salmon farming in Scotland will also inform both Committees work. This report specifically reviews the scientific evidence relating to the environmental effects of salmon farming. Where the evidence suggests that there are concerns about harm to marine ecosystems or protected species and habitats, possible mitigation measures are suggested.

Funding Information: This manuscript was partly funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme [FP7] ITN project ?CACHE: Calcium in a Changing Environment? (www.cache-itn.eu) under REA grant agreement 605051. The authors thank everyone involved in this project including Mark Blaxter, Xushuai Zhang, Yan Wang-Duffort, Nina Fox, Rita Pereira, Nicola Munro, Elaina Ford, Lucy Gonzalez, Christina Chatzela, Rachel Ramirez, our EU Project Officer Giuliana Donini and EU Mid-Term Review Expert Guy Duke. Also, many thanks to our Project Partners: the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers, specifically Nick Lake, Janet Brown and Walter Speirs, Coastal Research and Management, Kiel especially Peter Krost, and our External Experts Professor Catherine Boyen, Station Biologique de Roscoff and Professor Mike Thorndyke. We also thank Laura Gerrish and Jamie Oliver (British Antarctic Survey) for drawing figures. Additional funds were provided by Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e a Tecnologia (FCT) through project UID/Multi/04326/2019 and the European Marine Biological Research Infrastructure Cluster-EMBRIC (EU H2020 research and innovation program, agreement n? 654008) and a Natural Environment Research Council Studentship (Project Reference: NE/J500173/1) to V.A.S. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Biological Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cambridge Philosophical Society. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved. ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF