A total of 51 rigs have joined the non-profit Offshore Bird Portal (OBP) since energy consultancy Xodus launched it in January.
Oil and gas operators from across the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) have signed up to the portal to help record and safeguard offshore species visiting assets based in the North Sea. OBP has expanded its reach into the North Sea energy sector in the past six months with interest from offshore wind developers and seafarers, the company said in its statement.
“We are satisfied with the response of the portal in its first months of operation. With more than 50 platforms registered to bring bird sighting data to the wider energy community, interest in OBP has expanded to sectors beyond oil and gas,” said MacNeill Ferguson, specialist in Xodus ecology.
“These industries share common goals to better understand the distribution of seabirds,” added Ferguson.
The OBP was established to improve the long-term collection of relevant geographic and seasonal data related to seabirds and migrants (passerines) on offshore platforms and structures, the consultant recalled. The database and toolkit aim to improve scientific understanding and ecological awareness throughout the energy industry.
Managed by Xodus, a team of ecologists work to maintain the portal, manage data submissions and provide a bird identification service to assist offshore staff with sightings of difficult species.
The number of birds using coastal platforms extends beyond the gulls, alkans and other seabirds found in UK waters, Xodus points out on its website, adding that a program of monitoring long-term birds in the Norwegian North Sea recorded 159 different bird species (seabirds and migrants) using platforms over a nine-year period. However, information on how birds use rigs in UK waters and up-to-date information on their spatial distribution remains limited, something the OBP aims to change, the company explains on its site.
“We hope that the OBP will become the central repository of up-to-date sighting data that will benefit us all, providing spatial and temporal distribution data for both seabird species and migrants in transit,” he added Ferguson.
“After the first six months of success, we hope to continue with the expansion of OBP. The ability to record other marine life, such as marine mammals, bats and insects, has also proven to be of interest to our collaborators. The wider the spread of contributions and data points we have, the more informative the data set will be,” he said.
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