Back to Deep-Water Corals A Lophelia pertusa colony Oil Affects
on Reproduction of the Deep-Water Coral Lophelia pertusa on
North Sea Oil Rigs Waller, Roberts & Gass The deep-sea coral
Lophelia pertusa was first found growing on North Sea oil
platforms in 1999, as the Brent Spar oil-storage buoy was
decommissioned (Bell & Smith, 1999) and as the Beryl Alpha
platform was surveyed (Pearce, 1999). This work showed corals
were relatively abundant at depths beneath the seasonal
thermocline in the northern North Sea (Roberts, 2002). The
presence of deep-water corals within the NE Atlantic has been
known for many years (Broch, 1922; Joubin, 1922; Dons, 1944;
LeDanois, 1948; Zibrowius, 1980), but using new technologies,
the true extent of the coral populations within European waters
is just being appreciated (Mortensen et al., 1995; Henriet et
al., 1998; Mortensen, 2000). The colonisation of L. pertusa on
man made structures has been noted previously (Wilson, 1979) and
so these oil rigs may be forming stepping stones