The ageing oil rigs that became marine oases
November 11, 2023 10:46 PM Subscribe
"Every square inch is covered in life": the ageing oil rigs that became marine oases.
"On a recent August afternoon, Ann Scarborough Bull motored out two miles from the coast of Santa Barbara onboard a research vessel called the Danny C. The marine biologist and her colleagues had an unusual destination in their sights: a disused oil platform that loomed ahead like a forgotten skyscraper reaching up from the horizon.
The team wasn’t interested in the platform itself, but what lurked beneath. When they reached the ageing structure, named Holly, they lowered a car-sized remote-controlled vehicle under the waves.
There, they saw hundreds of thousands of juvenile rockfish finding shelter amid the hulking metal structure, alongside waving white anemones, clusters of mussels, and silver jack mackerel.
The seasoned marine biologists have been observing this remarkable spectacle for years. Holly, which was put out of use in 2015, is one of 27 oil rigs built off the coast of California decades ago that have become hotbeds of biological activity.
While not natural structures, their platforms have been embedded into the muddy seabed long enough to become part of the ocean environment, providing a home for creatures like mussels and barnacles, which in turn attract larger fish and sea lions that find safety and food there.
After two and a half decades of studying the rigs, Bull says it’s clear to her: “These places are extremely productive, both for commercial and recreational fisheries and for invertebrates.” "
"On a recent August afternoon, Ann Scarborough Bull motored out two miles from the coast of Santa Barbara onboard a research vessel called the Danny C. The marine biologist and her colleagues had an unusual destination in their sights: a disused oil platform that loomed ahead like a forgotten skyscraper reaching up from the horizon.
The team wasn’t interested in the platform itself, but what lurked beneath. When they reached the ageing structure, named Holly, they lowered a car-sized remote-controlled vehicle under the waves.
There, they saw hundreds of thousands of juvenile rockfish finding shelter amid the hulking metal structure, alongside waving white anemones, clusters of mussels, and silver jack mackerel.
The seasoned marine biologists have been observing this remarkable spectacle for years. Holly, which was put out of use in 2015, is one of 27 oil rigs built off the coast of California decades ago that have become hotbeds of biological activity.
While not natural structures, their platforms have been embedded into the muddy seabed long enough to become part of the ocean environment, providing a home for creatures like mussels and barnacles, which in turn attract larger fish and sea lions that find safety and food there.
After two and a half decades of studying the rigs, Bull says it’s clear to her: “These places are extremely productive, both for commercial and recreational fisheries and for invertebrates.” "
Just saying, what is true in California is not necessarily true in the Gulf. If this worked like this in this Gulf, we would not have a red snapper problem. In the Gulf, rigs tend to be jellyfish factories and that is it. There does not seem to be the benefits like in the Pacific.
Perhaps the reefs in the Gulf were already producing, and the vertical structures don't add anything. I don't know why researchers have not found increases in fish productivity or diversity in the Gulf on the rigs. I know that there is a lot of pressure for the few ecologists in the Gulf to repeat Dr Love's findings. I know there is always pressure to avoid the costs that come with decommissioning platforms, especially in the last ten years since fracking took the life out of the industry offshore.
We have a program for more than 12 Rigs to Reefs sites, for the anglers.
But we have 539 structures in the Gulf which are junk and decommissioning has slowed to a crawl. At this point, it would take 10 years just to catch up. Platforms are just being left out there, flashing and beeping for nothing. They degrade and become hazards to commercial fishermen. The bird researchers say that they are bad for migrating birds in the Mississippi flyway, which i don't totally understand but I believe them. Drilling muds are left on the Gulf floor and not cleaned up. There are many people out of work that could be employed cleaning up these platforms, and the balance is the other way.
Chevron and all them should be made to clean up junk platforms, according to the law.
posted by eustatic at 4:37 AM on November 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
Perhaps the reefs in the Gulf were already producing, and the vertical structures don't add anything. I don't know why researchers have not found increases in fish productivity or diversity in the Gulf on the rigs. I know that there is a lot of pressure for the few ecologists in the Gulf to repeat Dr Love's findings. I know there is always pressure to avoid the costs that come with decommissioning platforms, especially in the last ten years since fracking took the life out of the industry offshore.
We have a program for more than 12 Rigs to Reefs sites, for the anglers.
But we have 539 structures in the Gulf which are junk and decommissioning has slowed to a crawl. At this point, it would take 10 years just to catch up. Platforms are just being left out there, flashing and beeping for nothing. They degrade and become hazards to commercial fishermen. The bird researchers say that they are bad for migrating birds in the Mississippi flyway, which i don't totally understand but I believe them. Drilling muds are left on the Gulf floor and not cleaned up. There are many people out of work that could be employed cleaning up these platforms, and the balance is the other way.
Chevron and all them should be made to clean up junk platforms, according to the law.
posted by eustatic at 4:37 AM on November 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
I went scuba diving under a decommissioned oil rig (now a dive resort) off the island of Mabul in Malaysian Borneo. There were scorpionfish and rockfish everywhere. The former especially are very good at blending in with the coral growth so we made a sort of game out of trying to find them all.
posted by JaredSeth at 6:22 AM on November 12, 2023
posted by JaredSeth at 6:22 AM on November 12, 2023
Great post, as always!
I'm wondering if they could design things like offshore wind farms for the optimum reef situation below water.
posted by mumimor at 6:40 AM on November 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm wondering if they could design things like offshore wind farms for the optimum reef situation below water.
posted by mumimor at 6:40 AM on November 12, 2023 [4 favorites]
this is a lovely, if unintended, consequence of some of the worst depredations we have committed against our planet.
(how many of you looked at this post and thought "oh, this must be CPBC's?")
posted by supermedusa at 8:33 AM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
(how many of you looked at this post and thought "oh, this must be CPBC's?")
posted by supermedusa at 8:33 AM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
This story dovetails well with a book I just read, "The Mushroom at the End of the World", which chronicles how matsutake mushrooms (along with young pines) now grow in the eastern Cascades forests, which were decimated by logging operations after WW2. It's heartening to know that things find a way to grow from the ruins of our making.
posted by of strange foe at 11:50 AM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by of strange foe at 11:50 AM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is all nice and such, but when they say 'every square inch is covered in life', they don't include the above-water portion of the rigs. By all means, keep the submerged parts to provide some habitat for marine life, but get rid of the ugly, dangerous structure towering over it. If they can't or won't get rid of them, topple the whole thing into the ocean and create even more habitat. If they can clean the rig enough that it wouldn't kill all the fish, of course.
posted by dg at 2:29 PM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by dg at 2:29 PM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
I’m reminded of a line from Zodiac on the subject of greenwashing the abandonment of equipment in the sea by saying “it will be a habitat for marine life”: of course it will! It’s the ocean! That’s where all the marine life is!
posted by sixswitch at 8:44 PM on November 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by sixswitch at 8:44 PM on November 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
I apologize for being negative, I have met Dr Love, and his research is good research. Reefs are awesome. Rockfish are beautiful.
posted by eustatic at 5:46 PM on November 13, 2023
posted by eustatic at 5:46 PM on November 13, 2023
If you're weirdly interested in deep ocean drilling and wonder how it all began, I recommend the 1961 book A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea. (I had stumbled upon it in a library and read it just weeks before the Deepwater Horizon disaster.) These guys* wanted to reach the Earth's mantle. They were unsuccessful in that but invented a lot of stuff along the way.
*They called themselves The American Miscellaneous Society and also formed a group called Society for Informing Animals of Their Taxonomic Positions. So they could be silly alongside being hard core scientists and engineers.
posted by neuron at 9:41 PM on November 13, 2023
*They called themselves The American Miscellaneous Society and also formed a group called Society for Informing Animals of Their Taxonomic Positions. So they could be silly alongside being hard core scientists and engineers.
posted by neuron at 9:41 PM on November 13, 2023
« Older From Ukraine with Love | Is Finland the best place in the world to be a... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by chavenet at 2:54 AM on November 12, 2023 [1 favorite]