Atlantic frontier birdlife
The Atlantic Frontier is an extraordinarily rich area for birdlife. There are 63 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) on the Orkney and Shetland Islands and 37 on the coast - many ranked as of national or international importance for birds.
Over twenty areas of Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles and Caithness are designated Special Protected Areas (SPAs) under the EU Birds Directive.
Populations of guillemots, razorbills, puffins, great skuas and gannets on Faeroe, Orkney and Shetland represent over 10% of the world total. The kittiwake and black guillemot populations are over 1% of the world total.
An oil spill originating in the West of Shetland fields could, according to the modelling done by the oil companies themselves, reach Shetland within 37 hours - or in the very worst case, within 19 hours.
The Atlantic Frontier is home to remarkable expanses of deep-water Lophelia corals, some individuals up to 50 metres in diameter and thought to be over 200 years old.
The corals, with their highly diverse and rich associated fauna, can be seen as the slow-growing cold-water marine equivalents of northern, old-growth ecosystems such as temperate rainforests.
The UK has not considered protection of marine environments, such as reefs, further than 25 miles from its coastline - although it is required to do so under the EC Habitats Directive. By contrast, it has been quick to claim a 200 mile exclusive economic zone under EC Common Fisheries Policy, allowing it access to huge sea areas for fish resources.
The Atlantic Frontier is the scene of a major rush to hunt the fish which inhabit the ocean depths, now that conventional fish stocks are dwindling. The 'ancient deepwater species'of the Atlantic Frontier are slow-breeding, long-lived fish species with strange appearances and strange names: among them the orange roughy, black scabbard fish, roundnose grenadier, mora, greater forkbeard, bluemouth and rabbit fish.
Most of the fish are 'non-quota'species, and like other governments, the UK's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries seems to be encouraging the rush to exploitation, in order to establish a share in case regulation is applied.
