Post by scpg02 on Nov 29, 2014 6:20:58 GMT
Offshore Oil Rigs Are Turning Into Fish Condos
Oct 16, 2014 11:35 AM ET // by Patrick J. Kiger
news.discovery.com/earth/oceans/offshore-oil-rigs-are-turning-into-fish-condos-141016.htm
Oct 16, 2014 11:35 AM ET // by Patrick J. Kiger
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico made us all a lot more wary of the environmental impacts of offshore oil exploration. But a recently published study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences points to one benefit of drilling: Fish, it turns out, are turning the underwater portions of the rigs into the equivalent of apartment towers.
The study, by post-doctoral biology researcherJeremy Claisse of Occidental College and colleagues, surveyed 16 rigs annually over a 15-year period, and found that they hosted 10 times the amount of fish as other natural marine environments around the world, such as reefs and estuaries. The California rigs even had seven times the aquatic population of the rich ecosystems around reefs in the south Pacific.
The study, by post-doctoral biology researcherJeremy Claisse of Occidental College and colleagues, surveyed 16 rigs annually over a 15-year period, and found that they hosted 10 times the amount of fish as other natural marine environments around the world, such as reefs and estuaries. The California rigs even had seven times the aquatic population of the rich ecosystems around reefs in the south Pacific.
news.discovery.com/earth/oceans/offshore-oil-rigs-are-turning-into-fish-condos-141016.htm
