The area

From the continental shelf to the West of Shetland, nearly 200 km offshore, the ocean plunges from two hundred metres down to depths of over fifteen hundred metres. Further south, the Rockall Trough is over four thousand metres deep in places. This is the area known as the Atlantic Frontier and it is the area the oil and fishing industries intend to exploit.

It is a dramatic area, one of Europe's last remaining areas of true wilderness. If the water of the area could be drawn back to expose the seabed, a rugged, grand and imposing scene would be revealed. The landscape consists of steep continental slopes, flat abyssal plains, sheer-sided trenches and dramatic submerged mountains.

The area around the continental shelf is known to be highly biologically productive, providing extremely fertile conditions for an amazing variety of sea life.

Scientists are continually finding new species in the deep water of the Atlantic Frontier. Relatively little is known about many of the species found, particularly the deep water ones. What information there is shows that this is an area of spectacular and unique diversity of species.

A staggering twenty two species of whales and dolphins have been found in these waters. In the last year, blue, humpback, fin and minke whales have all been detected in the Atlantic Frontier. Sensitive hydrophones, once used by the US navy to detect enemy submarines, have recently heard the calls of the very rare blue whale. At the end of 1996, as many as 4 blue whales were heard in the waters north and west of Scotland and 13 were detected to the west of the British Isles. Sperm, humpback and blue whales all migrate in the deep water along the continental shelf of the Atlantic Frontier, which has been described as `a motorway for whales'. Some species of whales travel through this area on their way north to feeding grounds in Arctic waters and then south again to the warm waters of the tropics where they breed.

At six hundred metres below the sea's surface, the quality of light is similar to starlight. At around eight hundred metres and beyond, there is total blackness. About eighty percent of the animals in the dimly illuminated depths have the ability to produce light.

Scientists have discovered more than two hundred species of fish living here as well as deep-water squid, starfish, sponges, sea cucumbers and sea urchins. Cold water coral grows on the slope off the edge of the continental shelf as well as in the depths and is thought to provide a home for as many as three hundred species of deep-sea creatures.

Fish living at these depths have adapted from the shallower waters over long periods of time. Some are long lost relatives of the cod or salmon families, others look like nothing else that exists on the planet.

On the surface live a large number of birds, relying on the depths for their food. The area around the Atlantic Frontier is an internationally important area for seabirds and is home to ten percent of the world's populations of puffins, gannets, razorbills, guillemots and great skuas. Fulmars are the most abundant breeding species in the region and the cliffs at Hoy on Orkney, support forty thousand pairs.

St Kilda, which along with the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef is a World Heritage Site, has the world's largest gannetry with over sixty thousand pairs breeding there. The largest colony of Manx shearwaters in the world is on Rhum, in the Inner Hebrides.

The threats

The threats posed to the wildlife and biodiversity of the Atlantic Frontier are three fold; climate change, oil development and fishing.

Climate change

If the sea temperature rises in the Atlantic by even one tenth of a degree, it is believed that many of the creatures adapted to the stable, cold waters of the deep oceans face extinction. In addition to their own demise this will also have an incalculable impact on the entire food web of the ocean as many of the deep-sea creatures form the basis of the chain.

Oil development

Noise disturbance and pollution are associated with all phases of offshore oil exploration and production, and in recent years there has been increasing concern about the possible detrimental effects of seismic testing on whales and dolphins. Seismic testing vessels use an array of air guns to generate a series of loud noises and, by listening to the echoes, the presence of oil and gas reserves in the underlying geology can be determined.

Whales and dolphins rely heavily on sound for communication, food finding and obtaining information about their environment. Potential effects of loud noises range from physical damage to ear structures to altered behaviour. It is suspected that noise may mask communication, interrupt their feeding patterns, displace them from their preferred areas and cause stress. What the long-term effects of the increasing industrialisation of the Atlantic Frontier will be on its whale and dolphin inhabitants is unknown.

Studies done in the North Sea over the last twenty years show that marine life has been severely affected by drilling muds, produced during the exploration as well as the production of oil. These toxic muds have smothered and poisoned delicate marine life in some areas and over-enriched the environment causing an imbalance of species in others. There is potential for the same problems to occur in the delicate marine communities of the Atlantic Frontier.

The oil developments in the Atlantic Frontier will rely on untested technology in a hostile environment. An oil spill at Foinaven (the first oil field to be exploited) could reach the Orkney and Shetland shorelines within forty eight hours, threatening marine life as well as bird populations. A slick from Clair could take as little as nineteen hours to reach the west coast of Esha Ness in a worst case scenario. The area within twelve miles of Shetland and Orkney is considered highly vulnerable throughout the year.

The Atlantic Frontier will be used to test new drilling technology in very deep water and extremely stormy conditions. If it works here, the technology will open the door to similar exploitation in other areas of ocean wilderness around the world.

Fishing

As conventional fish stocks are depleted, there has been a ‘gold rush’ policy to exploit the species of the ocean depths. The Government has ignored warnings from some deep-water specialists that these fish are very vulnerable to exploitation.

The orange roughy, for instance, is difficult to find but once it is located, catches are high. Roughies swim in schools of mixed generations and fishing boat hauls will contain grandparents, parents and children. Soon catches will fall and there is very little prospect of populations recovering. One UK Ministry scientist admitted that it was more like mining than harvesting.

Nature conservation measures in the UK, as they stand, are insufficient to protect the Atlantic Frontier. This area of immense beauty, great diversity of species, ancient habitat and lingering mystery is being left to the ravages of the oil and fishing industries, both of which have the potential to decimate it.