Offshore Oil Platforms: An Invaluable Ecological Resource

Hard substrates created by oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and Santa Barbara Channel provide a significant portion of the hard bottom habitat that is essential for the encrusting organisms that form the base of a complex food web. These substrates, the platforms´ high profile and open structure, and their creation of excellent habitats and breeding grounds from the sea floor through the splash zone expand the numbers, diversity and range of many desirable fish, shellfish and other organisms. The presence of 20-50 times more fish under and around a platform than in nearby soft bottom areas acts as a strong lure for sport anglers, commercial fishermen and sport divers. Mariculture has also become an important activity. The current requirement that platforms be entirely removed once production operations have ceased threatens to cause the loss of many habitats. However, it has also spawned a rigs-to-reefs movement, whose goal is to convert a number of the platforms into permanent artificial reefs.