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New course in marine resource development and protection
MarinePollutionBulletin
North Sea Oil and Gas Impacts Scientists met at the Royal Society of London in Febmary to discuss the effects of North Sea oil and gas developments on the environment. The meeting was sponsored by British Petroleum and was aimed at providing a summary of effects from over 20 years of oil industry activity in the North Sea together with an evaluation of the monitoring techniques used and their continued applicability. Although the papers presented at the meeting contributed some new information, there were, predictably, few surprises. The main outcome was confirmation of the established view that offshore oil activity has a significant, but very localized impact on the environment. Although run-off and production water will continue to be a source of low level chronic pollution, the use of oil-based drilling muds (OBMs) is now by far the greatest source of hydrocarbon contamination from offshore oil operations. Nevertheless, it was apparent that the effect of OBM discharge on the benthos was limited to within a few hundred metres of the installations. It also appeared that production of anoxic conditions through the activity of sulphide reducing bacteria was probably more significant than the toxicity of OBMs in their effect on the benthos. There appeared to be no evidence that the plankton was significantly affected by offshore oil operations. Success of plankton-dependent commercial fisheries being more influenced by fishery practices than any other factors. Some doubts on the adequacy of current statutory monitoring requirements were expressed, however. The present stipulation for single sample transects do not appear to take into account the extreme patchiness of cuttings distributions close to the platforms. In his final summing up of the meeting Professor tL B. Clark concluded that although marine pollution research has yielded valuable information on the biology and ecology of marine organisms, it is unlikely that future problems associated with the offshore industry will be as stimulating to fundamental research as in the past and argued that different problems relating to environmental pollution should now be addressed by marine scientists. The proceedings of the meeting will be published later this year in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
million joint research project set up by the SFT/Statfjord Unit and represented by Mobil Exploration Norway Inc. The research programme was established to assess the environmental effects of using oil-based drilling fluids and to investigate methods and techniques of assessing and reducing the impacts. The 14 papers presented covered the areas of survey, oil/cuttings/wash fluid interactions, treatment technology, toxicity testing, reduced toxicity drilling fluid formulation, oil on cuttings measurement and analysis, and biodegradation of oil on cuttings. A lively debate terminated the conference in which the background hydrocarbon levels in the area of the Statfjord field Platform Charlie before drilling commenced were shown to be at last twice that of background levels of nearby areas 8 years ago. The toxicity of so called 'low toxicity' or low aromatic oilbased drilling muds presently used by the industry was also brought into question. Several of the papers presented information which suggested that the high initial toxic effect of diesel oil-based muds (DBM) was rapidly reduced to levels similar to low aromatic oil-based muds (LAM). Under certain circumstances it was also shown that DBMs can be degraded more rapidly than LAMs, probably because diesel presents a more highly diverse carbon source than the more highly refined LAM base oils.
New Course in Marine Resource Development and Protection
From October of this year, the Institute of Offshore Engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh will offer a master's degree course in Marine Resource Development and Protection. The course will be modular in structure and available on a full-time (one year) or part-time basis. In addition to having two core modules--Environmental Processes, and Marine Technology and the Environment--options available in 1986-1987 will include: • Effluent and Waste Processing Technology and Procedures • Environmental Policy, Control and Monitoring • Coastal and Estuarine Development and Management • Fishery and Bioresource Technology and Management Society of London. • Shellfish Exploitation. By choosing appropriate options, a student will develop specialization in either environmental protection or resource development, but with much common ground relating to environmental quality, management Indications that background levels of hydrocarbons in and policy. the sediments of the northern North Sea may be on the Particularly timely is the obvious attention on Excluincrease since the commencement of offshore oil indus- sive Economic Zone (EEZ) resource exploitation and try operations in the area was one of the facts to emerge management strategies, which will promote an interfrom the recent conference Cleaning and Environmental national dimension to the studies. Effects of Oil Contaminated Drill Cuttings held in The Institute of Offshore Engineering was founded Trondheim, Norway in February. in 1972 with the aim of providing a truly multidisciThe conference was held to report on the $3.5 plinary base for industrially-focused research and
North Sea Background Oil Levels on Increase
188
Volume 17/Number 5/May 1986
contract work in offshore and marine technology. Its current programme, much in collaboration with academic departments of the University, involves major interests in environmental and resource protection and development, funded from research agencies, government and industry. Further details of the MSc course may be obtained from: The Institute of Offshore Engineering, HeriotWatt University, Research Park, Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, Scotland.
New UK Culture Collection Directory NERC have just published a directory of marine culture collections and culture related research in the UK. The Directory was developed from data originally submittedto NERC in response to its 1984 review of marine culture collections. Entries were revised and new material included in autumn 1985. The marine organisms covered include: bacteria, fungi and other heterotrophic organisms; phytoplankton and benthic algae, including macroalgae; protozoa and other microfauna. There is also limited coverage of meio- and macrofauna, being largely restricted to invertebrate larval rearing programmes. Copies of the directory may be obtained from: Informarion Section, NERC, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wilts., SN2 1EU, UK.
Ban on Seal Products Extended The EEC Directive placing a ban on the import into EEC Member States of products derived from baby seals was extended to October 1989 at an EEC Council of Ministers meeting in September 1985. The decision was made regardless of repeated requests by the Canadian Government that there should be no extension until publication of the Canadian Royal Commission on Seals and the Sealing Industry's report in June 1986. The baby seals in question are caught by traditional eskimo hunting methods and the ban is having a severe effect on eskimo communities where seal hunting forms an important source of income. The purpose of the Royal Commission is to examine all aspects of sealing, including the political, economic, ethical, social and scientific implications. The Canadian Government maintains that the ban, which was adopted at a time when public opinion against seal hunting was running high, is both unjustified and premature.
North American News Federal P l a n R e l e a s e d for U S P o l l u t i o n Research
An updated plan for Federal marine and Great Lakes pollution research and monitoring in the United States has just been released by the US National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration of the Department of Commerce. The 'National Marine Pollution Program Federal Plan for Ocean Pollution Research, Development, and Monitoring, Fiscal Years 1985-1989' is intended to guide and coordinate the overall US Federal effort in the study of marine pollution. The Plan identifies and establishes priorities for national marine pollution needs and problems. It includes specific recommendations for improving Federal marine pollution efforts and suggests a number of shifts in programme emphasis designed to improve the Federal ability to address high priority needs and problems. The Plan identifies and sets priorities for the marine pollution issues facing the US. Among the highest priority issues are concerns regarding the effects of synthetic organic chemicals, non-point source pollution, habitat loss and modification, and disposal of sewage and industrial wastes. The 50 issues identified in this way are grouped into 13 problem and 5 need areas. Overall, for Fiscal Year 1985, US government efforts in marine pollution consisted of about 650 projects with a total Federal expenditure of about $122.7 million. The main body of the Plan addresses each of the identified marine pollution problems and needs individually. Specific management questions are developed for each problem area regarding the information needed to manage the problem. The Federal programme and plans directed at the problem are then considered, and conclusions and recommendations for improvement are developed for each area. Although a similar approach is taken to analyse the needs, requirements in each need area are presented rather than development of management questions. Among the most significant recommendations of the Plan are: • The Federal programme should increase its emphasis on studies conducted in the coastal (including Great Lakes) and estuarine zone of the marine environment and should decrease emphasis in offshore ale, as.
• The Federal research and monitoring directed at nonpoint source pollution should be expanded, especially with regard to the role of fine-grained sediments and their effects on pollutant adsorption, availability, transport, and fate. • The Federal efforts addressing causes of physical habitat modification in estuarine and coastal waters should be expanded, and interagency coordination in the area should be strengthened. • The Federal research and monitoring programme related to the disposal of sewage and industrial effluents should receive increased emphasis, especially with regard to developing better understanding of long-term, cumulative effects of multiple sources. • The Federal programme should develop strong emphasis on studies related to inputs and effects of synthetic organics and should increase its emphasis on work concerning nutrients and pathogens. • The present strong emphasis in the Federal programme on assessing the effects of oil and gas development in the marine environment should be reduced by restricting the pre-lease environmental 189
North Sea Oil and Gas Impacts Scientists met at the Royal Society of London in Febmary to discuss the effects of North Sea oil and gas developments on the environment. The meeting was sponsored by British Petroleum and was aimed at providing a summary of effects from over 20 years of oil industry activity in the North Sea together with an evaluation of the monitoring techniques used and their continued applicability. Although the papers presented at the meeting contributed some new information, there were, predictably, few surprises. The main outcome was confirmation of the established view that offshore oil activity has a significant, but very localized impact on the environment. Although run-off and production water will continue to be a source of low level chronic pollution, the use of oil-based drilling muds (OBMs) is now by far the greatest source of hydrocarbon contamination from offshore oil operations. Nevertheless, it was apparent that the effect of OBM discharge on the benthos was limited to within a few hundred metres of the installations. It also appeared that production of anoxic conditions through the activity of sulphide reducing bacteria was probably more significant than the toxicity of OBMs in their effect on the benthos. There appeared to be no evidence that the plankton was significantly affected by offshore oil operations. Success of plankton-dependent commercial fisheries being more influenced by fishery practices than any other factors. Some doubts on the adequacy of current statutory monitoring requirements were expressed, however. The present stipulation for single sample transects do not appear to take into account the extreme patchiness of cuttings distributions close to the platforms. In his final summing up of the meeting Professor tL B. Clark concluded that although marine pollution research has yielded valuable information on the biology and ecology of marine organisms, it is unlikely that future problems associated with the offshore industry will be as stimulating to fundamental research as in the past and argued that different problems relating to environmental pollution should now be addressed by marine scientists. The proceedings of the meeting will be published later this year in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
million joint research project set up by the SFT/Statfjord Unit and represented by Mobil Exploration Norway Inc. The research programme was established to assess the environmental effects of using oil-based drilling fluids and to investigate methods and techniques of assessing and reducing the impacts. The 14 papers presented covered the areas of survey, oil/cuttings/wash fluid interactions, treatment technology, toxicity testing, reduced toxicity drilling fluid formulation, oil on cuttings measurement and analysis, and biodegradation of oil on cuttings. A lively debate terminated the conference in which the background hydrocarbon levels in the area of the Statfjord field Platform Charlie before drilling commenced were shown to be at last twice that of background levels of nearby areas 8 years ago. The toxicity of so called 'low toxicity' or low aromatic oilbased drilling muds presently used by the industry was also brought into question. Several of the papers presented information which suggested that the high initial toxic effect of diesel oil-based muds (DBM) was rapidly reduced to levels similar to low aromatic oil-based muds (LAM). Under certain circumstances it was also shown that DBMs can be degraded more rapidly than LAMs, probably because diesel presents a more highly diverse carbon source than the more highly refined LAM base oils.
New Course in Marine Resource Development and Protection
From October of this year, the Institute of Offshore Engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh will offer a master's degree course in Marine Resource Development and Protection. The course will be modular in structure and available on a full-time (one year) or part-time basis. In addition to having two core modules--Environmental Processes, and Marine Technology and the Environment--options available in 1986-1987 will include: • Effluent and Waste Processing Technology and Procedures • Environmental Policy, Control and Monitoring • Coastal and Estuarine Development and Management • Fishery and Bioresource Technology and Management Society of London. • Shellfish Exploitation. By choosing appropriate options, a student will develop specialization in either environmental protection or resource development, but with much common ground relating to environmental quality, management Indications that background levels of hydrocarbons in and policy. the sediments of the northern North Sea may be on the Particularly timely is the obvious attention on Excluincrease since the commencement of offshore oil indus- sive Economic Zone (EEZ) resource exploitation and try operations in the area was one of the facts to emerge management strategies, which will promote an interfrom the recent conference Cleaning and Environmental national dimension to the studies. Effects of Oil Contaminated Drill Cuttings held in The Institute of Offshore Engineering was founded Trondheim, Norway in February. in 1972 with the aim of providing a truly multidisciThe conference was held to report on the $3.5 plinary base for industrially-focused research and
North Sea Background Oil Levels on Increase
188
Volume 17/Number 5/May 1986
contract work in offshore and marine technology. Its current programme, much in collaboration with academic departments of the University, involves major interests in environmental and resource protection and development, funded from research agencies, government and industry. Further details of the MSc course may be obtained from: The Institute of Offshore Engineering, HeriotWatt University, Research Park, Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, Scotland.
New UK Culture Collection Directory NERC have just published a directory of marine culture collections and culture related research in the UK. The Directory was developed from data originally submittedto NERC in response to its 1984 review of marine culture collections. Entries were revised and new material included in autumn 1985. The marine organisms covered include: bacteria, fungi and other heterotrophic organisms; phytoplankton and benthic algae, including macroalgae; protozoa and other microfauna. There is also limited coverage of meio- and macrofauna, being largely restricted to invertebrate larval rearing programmes. Copies of the directory may be obtained from: Informarion Section, NERC, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wilts., SN2 1EU, UK.
Ban on Seal Products Extended The EEC Directive placing a ban on the import into EEC Member States of products derived from baby seals was extended to October 1989 at an EEC Council of Ministers meeting in September 1985. The decision was made regardless of repeated requests by the Canadian Government that there should be no extension until publication of the Canadian Royal Commission on Seals and the Sealing Industry's report in June 1986. The baby seals in question are caught by traditional eskimo hunting methods and the ban is having a severe effect on eskimo communities where seal hunting forms an important source of income. The purpose of the Royal Commission is to examine all aspects of sealing, including the political, economic, ethical, social and scientific implications. The Canadian Government maintains that the ban, which was adopted at a time when public opinion against seal hunting was running high, is both unjustified and premature.
North American News Federal P l a n R e l e a s e d for U S P o l l u t i o n Research
An updated plan for Federal marine and Great Lakes pollution research and monitoring in the United States has just been released by the US National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration of the Department of Commerce. The 'National Marine Pollution Program Federal Plan for Ocean Pollution Research, Development, and Monitoring, Fiscal Years 1985-1989' is intended to guide and coordinate the overall US Federal effort in the study of marine pollution. The Plan identifies and establishes priorities for national marine pollution needs and problems. It includes specific recommendations for improving Federal marine pollution efforts and suggests a number of shifts in programme emphasis designed to improve the Federal ability to address high priority needs and problems. The Plan identifies and sets priorities for the marine pollution issues facing the US. Among the highest priority issues are concerns regarding the effects of synthetic organic chemicals, non-point source pollution, habitat loss and modification, and disposal of sewage and industrial wastes. The 50 issues identified in this way are grouped into 13 problem and 5 need areas. Overall, for Fiscal Year 1985, US government efforts in marine pollution consisted of about 650 projects with a total Federal expenditure of about $122.7 million. The main body of the Plan addresses each of the identified marine pollution problems and needs individually. Specific management questions are developed for each problem area regarding the information needed to manage the problem. The Federal programme and plans directed at the problem are then considered, and conclusions and recommendations for improvement are developed for each area. Although a similar approach is taken to analyse the needs, requirements in each need area are presented rather than development of management questions. Among the most significant recommendations of the Plan are: • The Federal programme should increase its emphasis on studies conducted in the coastal (including Great Lakes) and estuarine zone of the marine environment and should decrease emphasis in offshore ale, as.
• The Federal research and monitoring directed at nonpoint source pollution should be expanded, especially with regard to the role of fine-grained sediments and their effects on pollutant adsorption, availability, transport, and fate. • The Federal efforts addressing causes of physical habitat modification in estuarine and coastal waters should be expanded, and interagency coordination in the area should be strengthened. • The Federal research and monitoring programme related to the disposal of sewage and industrial effluents should receive increased emphasis, especially with regard to developing better understanding of long-term, cumulative effects of multiple sources. • The Federal programme should develop strong emphasis on studies related to inputs and effects of synthetic organics and should increase its emphasis on work concerning nutrients and pathogens. • The present strong emphasis in the Federal programme on assessing the effects of oil and gas development in the marine environment should be reduced by restricting the pre-lease environmental 189