A comparison of marine communities along a subsea pipeline with those in surrounding seabed areas

McLean, Dianne L.; Cure, Katherine; Wahab, Muhammad Azmi Abdul; Galaiduk, Ronen; Birt, Matthew J.; Vaughan, Brigit I.; Colquhoun, Jamie; Case, Mark; Radford, Ben; Stowar, Marcus; Harries, Simon; Heyward, Andrew; Miller, Karen J.

doi:10.1016/j.csr.2021.104394

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Also particularly abundant, L. russellii are slightly larger-bodied lutjanids not known to form large schools (although see Fishery target species on subsea wells in Australia above). High abundance of lutjanids along pipelines supports previous research on pipelines in this region (Bond et al, 2018a;Bond et al, 2018b;Bond et al, 2018c;McLean et al, 2021a). The value of pipelines as habitat for lutjanids appears closely linked to the provision of shelter, with a higher abundance of these species where pipelines are less buried and span the seafloor (Figure 9).…”

Section: Fishery Target Species On Subsea Pipelines In Australiasupporting

confidence: 81%

“…To estimate biomass ( B i ), we first required an estimate of the average length of each species on wells. This "average" was calculated from the mean length of individuals that were measured from stereo-video imagery obtained from subsea pipelines and platforms in the NW region (Pradella et al, 2014;Bond et al, 2018a;Bond et al, 2018b;McLean et al, 2020;McLean et al, 2021a). Average lengths (499 mm, L. argentimaculatus; 429.4 mm, L. malabaricus; 337 mm, L. russellii) were converted into biomass using the equation B i =aL b (Table 2).…”

Section: Fish Production Estimates For Subsea Wellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A different form of reefing is to repurpose decommissioned O&G structures into artificial reef complexes that incorporate purpose-built reef structures (e.g., King Reef, Exmouth, Western Australia). In addition to platforms, subsea pipelines have been found to possess higher abundances of important fishery species relative to surrounding sanddominated ecosystems (Love and York, 2005;Bond et al, 2018a;Bond et al, 2018b;McLean et al, 2021a). The concentration of fishery target species on subsea pipelines in northwest (NW) Australia has influenced commercial trap fishing in the region with fishing effort on pipelines ~11.4 times greater per km 2 than effort in the rest of the area of the Pilbara Trap Managed Fishery (Bond et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some fishes associate with caves or overhangs, and pipeline spans, well overhangs, and platform beam junctions may be places where these species occur (e.g., Love et al, 2019). Such relationships help explain why higher abundances of demersal fishery species have been observed on subsea pipelines compared to surrounding sand-dominated communities (Bond et al, 2018a;Bond et al, 2018b;McLean et al, 2021a). However, these associations may not necessarily be permanent, as the habitat requirements of fish may change as they grow and mature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Habitat value of subsea wells and pipelines for fishery target species in Australia

et al. 2022

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Subsea pipelines and wells installed to support the oil and gas industry represent some of the most extensive and numerous anthropogenic structures throughout global marine ecosystems. There remains a paucity of information on the habitat value of these structures for fishery target species and, as a result, little understanding of how decommissioning should be conducted to minimise impacts to populations of these economically and socially important species. We assess the diversity and abundance of species that are targets of recreational and commercial fisheries on 33 subsea wells and 17 pipelines across the tropical northwest and temperate southeast marine regions of Australia. We examine relationships between fish identity and abundance and a range of environmental (e.g., depth, location), infrastructure-specific (e.g., pipeline position, diameter, age, length of pipeline, height of well, position on well), and biological (% cover of epibiota) variables using video filmed by remotely operated vehicles during their routine offshore inspection and maintenance campaigns. A total of 100 fishery target species were observed across subsea well and pipeline infrastructure, 56 species uniquely observed on pipelines and nine unique to wells. The families Lutjanidae (snapper), Serranidae (rock cods, groupers, perch), and Carangidae (trevallies) were most common and abundant on both wells and pipelines. In the northwest, lutjanids were most abundant around the base of wells, in shallow depths, on shorter wells, and where pipelines spanned the seafloor. A greater number of fishery target species and abundance of ocean perch (Helicolenus spp.) were also associated with pipelines that spanned the seafloor in temperate southeast Australia. The combined biomass of three species of snapper on wells in the northwest was 1,270 kg, with production levels for these species on each well estimated to be 105.2 g m2 year-1. The present study serves as an important reference point for informing decommissioning decisions for pipeline and well infrastructure and demonstrates the utility of industry-held data for science. We suggest that key predictor variables identified here be incorporated into comprehensive before-after-control-impact scientific studies for specific fields/assets to enable the prediction of potential impacts of decommissioning scenarios on marine communities present and quantification of such impacts after the decommissioning activity has occurred.

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Section: Fishery Target Species On Subsea Pipelines In Australiasupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Fish Production Estimates For Subsea Wellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Habitat value of subsea wells and pipelines for fishery target species in Australia

et al. 2022

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“…com)]. Archival footage is better suited to quantify fish biodiversity (Bond et al, 2018a;McLean et al, 2021). Although, research questions formulated by experts (Fowler et al, 2019) and other stakeholders (Shaw et al, 2018) encompass many themes that are important to make informed decisions (Figure 1), those themes, do not get reflected in the research that has been carried out to date, aside from biodiversity assessments.…”

Section: Analyzing Global Ecological Research On Decommissioning Through Published Research and Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trash or Treasure? Considerations for Future Ecological Research to Inform Oil and Gas Decommissioning

et al. 2021

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Numerous oil and gas (O&G) installations worldwide will need to be decommissioned in the near future. Complete removal of subsea structures is often the default approach although some regions retain structures under rigs-to-reefs programs. Here, we reviewed the published literature to understand the status of global research on decommissioning, and specifically identify gaps in ecological knowledge. We estimated the frequency of different research categories (i.e., themes, and spatial/temporal scales), and tested the assumption that the number of papers across the categories of each research aspect was even in distribution. However, the frequency of studies focusing on biodiversity at a local (≤100 km2) scale (relative to regional and oceanic and pan-oceanic scales) were significantly higher; while other theme categories (e.g., eco-toxicology, connectivity, structural-integrity, restoration and other) were significantly lower than expected. Temporally, ≤1-year studies were more frequent than multi-year studies, but these frequencies did not significantly deviate from the assumed distribution of equal frequencies. We propose that further research be carried out to evaluate the benefits of both retention and removal of structures. Ecological research on decommissioning should extend its focus beyond biodiversity, to include eco-toxicology, structural-integrity, connectivity at larger spatial and temporal scales. This would provide a more holistic assessment of ecological impacts to inform sustainable and equitable development choices in multiple Blue Economy sectors, as we transition from offshore O&G to marine renewables.

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Environmental implications of offshore oil and gas decommissioning options: an eco-efficiency assessment approach

Janjua¹,

Khan²

2022

Environ Dev Sustain

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A comparison of marine communities along a subsea pipeline with those in surrounding seabed areas

Cited by 12 publications

References 63 publications

Habitat value of subsea wells and pipelines for fishery target species in Australia

Habitat value of subsea wells and pipelines for fishery target species in Australia

Trash or Treasure? Considerations for Future Ecological Research to Inform Oil and Gas Decommissioning

Environmental implications of offshore oil and gas decommissioning options: an eco-efficiency assessment approach

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