Biological productivity of fish associated with offshore oil and gas structures on the Pacific OCS

Abstract

From the Technical Summary: “Chapter 1: We found that oil and gas platforms off the coast of California have the highest secondary fish production of any marine habitat that has been studied, about an order of magnitude higher than fish communities from other marine ecosystems. Previous estimates have come mainly from estuarine environments, generally regarded as one of the most productive ecosystems globally. High rates of fish production on these platforms ultimately results from high levels of larval and pelagic juvenile fish settlement and subsequent growth of primarily rockfishes (genus Sebastes) to the substantial amount of complex hardscape habitat created by the platform structure distributed throughout the water column.

Chapter 2: On 15 out of the 16 platforms in this study, at least 78.0% of fish biomass and 78.2% of secondary fish production would be retained after partial removal, with above 90% retention expected for both metrics on many platforms. We also found that shell mounds are moderately productive fish habitats (range: 0.8 to 68 g/m²/yr), with many similar to or greater than natural rocky reefs in the region (range: 4.4 to 22.4 g/m²/yr).”