Excellent, thank you, that sounds like the answer! Clearly they have been cut up for 'recycling'.

They are off this length now, as they have been cut up into manageable lengths for easier handling. Often they may be many miles long.

Most probably they are umbilicals, which are designed to control underwater production wells, from a nearby production platform. The umbilicals would be laid along the sea bed. They would be used to transmit electrical and hydraulic power in order to function various valves at the top of the well. They would also allow the status of the well to be constantly monitored by a nearby production platform. Essentially, they would connect a platform to a nearby subsea production tree.

That's what I thought at first, but the diameter is full of metal and a softer material, so you couldn't pump anything through them. They are streaked with oil but on the OUTSIDE, so maybe pollution prevention booms, but they don't look as if they would float??

When I walked pass them they look like there from the oil industry, maybe an old under sea pipe line.

Rgards

Malc