The Offshore Biodiversity Initiative seeks to undertake co-operative research with offshore industries to improve the status of offshore biodiversity information and collaborate to increase the level of spatial protection of offshore environments. This project falls under the umbrella of this initiative and will feed into the spatial planning for Offshore Marine Protected Areas.

 

The Agulhas Bank on the South African south coast is one of the most economically important offshore areas supporting petroleum production and several commercial fisheries. The Agulhas bioregion hosts both warm and cool temperate species but also has the greatest number of South African endemics. Offshore oil and gas exploration in South Africa commenced in 1965 with production beginning on the Agulhas Bank in the 80's. The Agulhas Bank is also a very significant area for fisheries, supporting inshore and offshore demersal trawl fisheries Petroleum activities overlap with fisheries on the South African south coast and there is an urgent need for information about the potential interactive effects and cumulative impacts of oil and gas activities in conflict with fisheries, in particular demersal trawling. Oil and gas structures, particularly on the Agulhas Bank, have prevented demersal trawling in specific areas and the petroleum sector motivates that this protection may benefit both biodiversity and fisheries.

 

The lack of information on benthic biodiversity on the Agulhas Bank and the poor knowledge of the effect of activities such as trawling and petroleum production may impair decision making in this important area. This is therefore a co-operative research project to improve the status of knowledge of offshore benthic biodiversity on the Agulhas Bank and assess the implications of existing petroleum infrastructure on selected components of the benthic biodiversity. This will in turn improve knowledge needed to make decisions about decommissioning options.