A robotic boat has taken its maiden voyage to survey fish populations around oil platforms in the North Sea.
In a project led by Aberdeen University, the craft was looking into the effects of decommissioning oil and gas structures on marine ecosystems.
The boat itself is an Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) and is owned and operated by ocean data company XOCEAN.
It has been using sonar to collect data on fish numbers around several oil platforms off the north-east coast.
What can the USV do?
The uncrewed vessel is capable of moving along through hundreds of miles of open water without assistance.
Fitted with commercial fisheries sensors, the USV can perform the same tasks as crewed vessels but without the need to send a single person offshore.
Information is instead transmitted online in real time and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
Around the size of an average car, it is capable of getting within 10 metres of a platform – which is far closer than a conventional ship.
The project, part of the UKRI-funded INSITE (Influence of Man-made Structures in the Ecosystem) programme, aims to understand better the influences offshore structures have on commercial fish populations in the North Sea.
‘Great success’
The survey, which was led by Aberdeen University’s Joshua Lawrence, has been dubbed a “great success”.
He said: “After months of planning and working closely with XOCEAN and the platform operators, it was great to finally see the Uncrewed Surface Vehicle collecting data.
“It’s amazing how this sort of technology reveals new opportunities to advance our understanding of these structures and their influences on the North Sea ecosystem.”
What has it found and what is next?
Previous work collected by the vessel suggests that fish group together several miles away from oil structures.
To that end, the survey made its approach from around seven miles away in each direction.
Academics from Strathclyde University will use the data to model the expected effects of how different decommissioning techniques of oil platforms will affect fish populations.
Dougie Speirs from Strathclyde University said: “The data coming out of this survey is providing us with an exceptional high-resolution picture of what is happening to fish distributions around marine installations.
“It was fascinating to see real-time online images from the USV, and the resulting data will be invaluable as we construct our fish population models.”
James Ives, chief executive officer at XOCEAN, said: “Conducting survey campaigns using USVs not only enables the collection of the highest possible resolution data, but it allows that to happen in a way that is safe, carbon-neutral and economical for our clients.”
Why has the data been collected?
Professor Paul Fernandes from Aberdeen University, the lead researcher on the project, explained why these data are so important.
He said: “Fish have long been known to gather at offshore structures.
“However, the extent of this aggregation, and whether it leads to an increase in productivity to benefit our fish stocks, remains unclear.
“Offshore oil and gas platforms act as de facto marine protected areas, so we are aiming to quantify the extent to which the increased numbers of fish found there spill over into the surrounding waters.”
The project, and the INSITE programme, will run until 2023, and the team will be running similar surveys of more oil platforms using the USV next summer.