Introduction Maritime transport is a major source of air pollutants yet remains one of the least regulated sectors globally. In the North Sea, vessel activity associated with offshore energy infrastructure decommissioning is expected to increase over the next decade. However, vessel-specific emissions during these activities remain poorly quantified, with existing approaches relying largely on coarse-scale estimates. This stud...

Modiolus modiolus (horse mussel) reefs are an example of marine biodiversity hotspots of high conservation importance. Due to historical destruction and slow rates of recovery, the habitat is considered threatened and/or declining under the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic 1992, and therefore incorporated into the conservation legislation of several countries. An analysis...

In the UK, some of the oldest oil and gas installations have been in the water for over 40 years and have considerable colonisation by marine organisms, which may lead to both industry challenges and/or potential biodiversity benefits (e.g., artificial reefs). The project objective was to test the use of an automated image analysis software (CoralNet) on images of marine biofouling from offshore platforms on the UK continental...