Fish Farms on Old Oil Rigs?

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service is attempting to allow old oil rigs to be used for industrial fish farming. Not only would this exceed their authority, but also they are overlooking the human health, environmental, and economic implications. Click here to tell them that Fish and Oil Don’t Mix.

Introduction

The oil industry sees much to gain from the promotion of open ocean aquaculture on and near oil and gas platforms. In an environmentally dubious, profit-driven scheme, benevolently called “rigs-to-reef,” decommissioned oil platforms would be permitted to remain in state and federal waters and converted into “artificial reefs” or fish habitats.

Leases that allow oil drilling in federal waters require the oil companies to remove their platforms within one year of the platform’s retirement. The rigs-to-reef program would allow these companies to avoid the costly procedure of oil rig removal and instead permit them to leave their rigs in the ocean for “other uses,” including fish farms.

A Fishy Deal

It can cost up to $5 million to remove an oil platform , but only costs about $800,000 to convert the platform into an “artificial reef.” Additionally, when oil companies convert their platforms into artificial reefs, the company relinquishes all future responsibility for damage related to the rig and transfers that liability to the adjacent state. Though rigs-to-reef programs are active only in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, such a program is currently being debated at the federal level.

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