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.”
Now, as California and the US shift away from offshore drilling and toward greener energy, a debate is mounting over their future. On one side are those who argue disused rigs are an environmental blight and should be removed entirely. On the other side are people, many of them scientists, who say we should embrace these accidental oases and that removing the structures is morally wrong. In other parts of the world, oil rigs have successfully become artificial reefs, in a policy known as rigs to reefs.
Is it possible to remove the part that’s above sea level and make a reef out of that, next to what’s already below the surface? That way nobody has to see these ugly structures and the sea life get more reef.
Maybe the top part can be something socially useful like a weather station and scuba school.
I mean, isn’t the point of this article that they won’t stay that way?
Humans alter the landscape, but when nature takes it back why take away what it’s making use of?
Why does everything have to be for us?
What about ships passing through. How are they supposed to avoid scraping their bottoms on the columns if they can’t see the columns. I think there needs to be enough structure above water too.
Using the same charts they’re already using. Those things aren’t visible in the dark or when it’s raining/foggy etc. Ships rely on charts and known channels.