This DTI commissioned marine sampling survey took place as 2 legs in July/August/September 2000 in the area north and west of Shetland and Fladen Ground in the North Sea on board th RRS Charles Darwin. The primary purpose being to establish a regional description of the current state of the seabed in the White Zone. The project was led by Southampton Oceanographic Centre, sub-contracted by Geotek Ltd on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry. This cruise was part of a continuing programme of environmental monitoring in these areas carried out as part of the Atlantic Frontier Environmental Network (AFEN) project. The primary sampling tool was a Bowers and Connelly Megacorer but a USNEL-type Boxcorer, Day Grab and 3m gravity corer were also used. A British Geological Survey geologist was onboard to undertake geological descriptions, the data from which is archived at BGS. For any other data from this survey contact National Oceanography Centre. Technical details of the survey are contained in BGS Internal Reports IR/01/135 and IR/01/079, Commissioned Report CR/01/43 and NOC Cruise Report No. 20 (http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/148424/).