The ‘Boaty McBoatface’ submarine has begun a major deployment in the North Sea.

Developed by the National Oceanography Centre, the autonomous submersible will conduct vital research on end-of-life oil fields off the coast of Shetland.

The vessel’s name originated in 2016 after an online poll to name a new polar research ship saw thousands of joke names submitted.

Although the ship was eventually named the Sir David Attenborough, the iconic name was carried over and lives on in the submarine.

Protecting Marine Environments

As part of the deployment, Boaty McBoatface will monitor and protect marine environments around several oil and gas structures, including NW Hutton and Miller, and the Braemar Pockmarks Marine Protected Area.

Thousands of offshore oil and gas structures are approaching the end of their lives globally, and nearly 500 of those are located in UK waters.

During decommissioning structures are removed, and the surrounding environment must be returned to a safe state. Long-term monitoring is also required to ensure that no lasting environmental harm has occurred.

The NOC-led Autonomous Techniques for infraStructure Ecological Assessment (AT-SEA) project will trial the concept of using submarines like Boaty McBoatface in this process.

Researchers say this could eventually replace the current approach for environmental monitoring in decommissioning, which requires dedicated ships and teams of people offshore.

Dr Daniel Jones from the National Oceanography Centre explained: “The overall goal of the project is to improve the environmental protection of the North Sea at a reduced cost and impact to the environment.

“We aim to demonstrate how this leading robotic technology from the NOC could be used worldwide to support this crucial ocean monitoring.”

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The NOC project will take place over a 10-day period and aim to provide future-proof solutions for the oil industry, helping operators to better reach net-zero targets.

The robots will gather data on the water, pollutants and currents, as well as taking images to make a map of the seafloor, structures present, and the animals that live there.

Teams will also test whether these robotic systems can gather equivalent information to the surveys currently done using ships.

Researchers say the project could help reduce emissions, risks and the cost of these operations in the future.

Dr Jones said: “This technology has the potential to change the way marine surveys are carried out in the future. Autonomous submarines could offer many advantages over current approaches; improving the quality and quantity of environmental information while cutting the cost and environmental impact for a survey ship and its crew.

“The AT-SEA project will test this concept in UK waters and carry out the first fully autonomous environmental assessment of multiple decommissioning sites.”

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