Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

Excerpts from a good OC Register article on the ecological significance of the 27 platforms in State and Federal waters offshore California:

“All the (California) platforms having booming ecosystems underwater,” marine scientist Amber Sparks said at an Aquarium of the Pacific lecture in Long Beach on Wednesday, March 2.

“There’s a lot of real estate; a lot of nooks and crannies for marine life,” she said. “Scientists at the National Academy for the Sciences have found California’s platforms are some of the most productive marine habitat in the world.”

The Gulf of Mexico is the poster child for rigs-to-reefs, with more than 500 decommissioned oil platforms turned into full-time artificial reefs over the past 30 years. It’s bold testament to the habitat potential of the rigs, transforming the relatively sterile, sandy bottom ecosystem there into one with hundreds of prime locations for marine life.