Oil Platforms off California are among the Most Productive Marine Fish Habitats Globally

To investigate the conservation and fisheries value of active and decommissioned oil platforms, production of fishes on oil platforms (and natural rocky reefs for comparison) off of southern California, USA were modeled using fisheries independent empirically-collected manned submersible data. We found that these platforms have the highest secondary fish production per unit area of seafloor of any marine habitat where similar estimates have been made. The high rates of fish production ultimately result from high levels of recruitment and the subsequent growth of primarily rockfish (genus Sebastes) to the substantial amount of complex hardscape habitat created by the platform structure distributed throughout the water column. The platforms have a high ratio of structural surface area to seafloor surface area, resulting in large amounts of habitat for juvenile and adult demersal fishes over a relatively small footprint of seafloor. Understanding the biological implications of these structures will inform policy related to the decommissioning of existing (e.g., oil and gas platforms) and implementation of emerging (e.g., wind, marine hydrokinetic) energy technologies.