{"id":150471,"date":"2025-09-12T03:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/150471\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T03:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:08:10","slug":"corals-growing-on-north-sea-oil-rigs-rehomed-on-artificial-reef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/150471\/","title":{"rendered":"Corals growing on North Sea oil rigs rehomed on artificial reef"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin KeaneScotland environment, energy and rural affairs correspondent<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Researchers took the coral to the St Abbs Marine Station<\/p>\n

Deep sea corals that colonised oil and gas platforms in the North Sea have been moved to a new home on an artificial reef.<\/p>\n

They have been growing on the legs of subsea structures for decades but are now under threat as old rigs are being decommissioned.<\/p>\n

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh \u2013 with the help of the offshore sector -used remotely-operated subsea robots to capture the corals.<\/p>\n

They were looked after at a special facility before being attached to the artificial reef with cable ties and then lowered back into the sea in the north Atlantic.<\/p>\n

Corals are small animals, similar to jellyfish, which live inside hard shells anchored to the seabed.<\/p>\n

They often live in small groups – or colonies – and form reefs when lots of colonies join together.<\/p>\n

\"UniversityUniversity of Edinburgh<\/p>\n

A remotely-operated robot dislodged the coral from the rig where it fell into a basket<\/p>\n

Prof Murray Roberts, a marine biologist at the University of Edinburgh, said he started noticing the formation of colonies in the North Sea more than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

“Deep sea corals are very important; they’re the cities of the deep sea,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The skeletons are really complex structures and when they die, they remain there. Other animals come and live in those cities.<\/p>\n

“On the legs of the platforms, they’ve been growing for 50 years and they form a part of that ecosystem now.”<\/p>\n

Hundreds of North Sea facilities are being decommissioned after reaching the end of their working life.<\/p>\n

Under international maritime law, the operators have a responsibility to completely remove the structures.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The tiny tentacles of the living coral can be seen coming out of the ends of the hard shells<\/p>\n

Until now, coral attached to the legs of oil and gas installations have either been composted or sent to landfill when the platforms have been removed.<\/p>\n

But the new initiative is giving them new homes close to west of Shetland oil fields where exclusion zones will protect them from destructive fishing.<\/p>\n

It is hoped that Offshore Marine Protected Areas, which are being proposed by the Scottish government, will protect them in the longer-term.<\/p>\n

Experts say the once abundant cold-water corals of the northern North Sea fell victim to bottom-trawling and dredging, a fishing method which can damage the sea bed.<\/p>\n

Tropical corals, which live in shallower water, face an existential threat from climate change, with warming waters causing bleaching.<\/p>\n

But deep sea corals face different problems from an increasing lack of food and ocean acidification which can corrode the hard structures.<\/p>\n

\"UniversityUniversity of Edinburgh<\/p>\n

Coral has been attached to the artificial concrete reef with cable ties and placed on the sea bed<\/p>\n

The project does not set out to fully recreate the reefs but to “seed” sites, allowing the corals to recover naturally.<\/p>\n

Remotely-operated vehicles, widely used for subsea operations in the oil and gas sector, were used to dislodge corals from the rigs.<\/p>\n

They fell into a basket which was returned to the surface, then taken to the St Abbs Marine Station in the Scottish Borders.<\/p>\n

They were kept in tanks for about four months before being attached to concrete columns which were lowered about 500m (1,640ft) back onto the sea bed.<\/p>\n

The team hopes they will continue to reproduce, with the “baby corals” spreading to other areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin KeaneScotland environment, energy and rural affairs correspondent BBC Researchers took the coral to the St Abbs Marine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-150471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}