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Evaluating the performance of fisheries and the effectiveness of fisheries management measures requires economic as well as biological information. A recent House of Commons Agriculture Committee report has drawn attention to the scarcity of economic information on UK sea fisheries, and recommends the commissioning of regular research into the profitability of the fishing industry. While supporting this recommendation, the present article contends that the information requirements are more extensive than those suggested by the Committee; specifically, the need is for information that enables policy makers to assess both the actual profitability of fisheries in their existing state and also their potential profitability under alternative fisheries management regimes. In practice this calls for the commissioning not just of regular costs and earnings studies, important though these may be for painting an up-to-date picture of the current economic performance of fisheries, but a modelling framework that can answer “what-if ?” questions about the way economic performance might be altered or improved under different policy scenarios.

Utilising case studies, the paper identifies the potential of artificial reefs as a tool to aid the rehabilitation of coastal ecosystems from an ecological perspective. It goes on to discuss how this potential can be constrained by the action of a complex array of legal frameworks and political processes which are not necessarily attuned to or supportive of the needs of habitat restoration (whether based on artificial reefs or other technologies). Apart from institutional inertia, one of the main reasons why support for habitat restoration projects may be lacking is that, while their costs may be expressed in monetary terms, their benefits rarely are. The paper concludes by exploring techniques by which both the benefits and costs of coastal rehabilitation may be monetised, thereby placing them on the same footing as other programmes whose economic returns are more easily quantified.

This paper explores the development of the offshore oil and gas industry on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) and particularly the role played by science and technology in that development. An historical perspective is taken in the first instance to place recent developments in context, before exploring the role of science and technology in the 1990s. Three areas of key importance form the basis of the discussion: the maintenance of production from the traditional provinces, the development of new provinces and the mitigation of environmental impacts. The paper demonstrates the crucial role that science and technology plays in each of these areas.

Amidst the growing volume of published research on artificial reefs, one of the key questions concerns their potential for enhancing production over and above merely serving to attract and concentrate fish at specific sites. This paper reviews the ‘attraction versus production’ debate, highlighting the key role of design in determining a reef’s effectiveness. Though some studies have apparently demonstrated that artificial reefs are capable of acting as production enhancers, others have not, for reasons which may be associated with the design of the reef itself. The review identifies a number of lines of enquiry for future research, and argues that while the proper design of a reef is essential to maxim&e productive potential, this may be of little value in the absence of a management strategy aimed at controlling the build-up of harvesting pressure which some reefs may engender. 0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

The paper, based on work undertaken for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and National Power, reviews the growing interest in using cement stabilised coal-fired power station by-products (pulverised fly ash (PFA) and flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) gypsum) in artificial reef construction. It focuses on the physical and environmental suitability of the material and the legal and policy issues which will determine its future use. In so doing, it explores the relationship between science and policy making and the allengulfing nature of the wider environmental agenda.

Despite a significant body of well-founded legislation oil pollution incidents still occur. There are a number of reasons for this less than perfect environmental performance. The principal factor in their resolution is, however, the explicit recognition of the role of corporate organizational behaviour in determining the quality of the marine environment. Environmental management does not end with government legislation and its policy derivatives but must be implemented offshore. Numerous commercial entities are implicitly tasked with implementing environmental management at the operational level. The hydrocarbon industry on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf is utilized to illustrate the various facets of corporate environmental scanning, communication and decision-taking which feature in their environmental performance.