The 3,739 oil Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico make for great fishing according to Humberto Fontova writing in Brookes News. He claims that 85 percent of fishing trips from Louisiana offshore are to the platforms, that there is 50 times more marine life around the platforms than in surrounding areas, and he has some harsh words for armchair greenies:
“Environmentalists” wake up in the middle of the night sweating and whimpering about offshore oil platforms only because they’ve never seen what's under them. This proliferation of marine life around the platforms turned on its head every “expert” opinion of its day. The original plan, mandated by federal environmental “experts” back in the late ‘40s, was to remove the big, ugly, polluting, environmentally hazardous contraptions as soon as they stopped producing. Fine, said the oil companies.
About 15 years ago some wells played out off Louisiana and the oil companies tried to comply. Their ears are still ringing from the clamor fishermen put up. Turns out those platforms are going nowhere, and by popular demand of those with a bigger stake in the marine environment than any “environmentalist.”
Every "environmental" superstition against these structures was turned on its head. Marine life had EXPLODED around these huge artificial reefs. Louisiana produces on third of America’s seafood In fact a study by Louisiana State University shows that 85 percent of Louisiana offshore fishing trips involve fishing around these structures and that there’s 50 times more marine life around an oil production platform than in the surrounding Gulf bottoms. Louisiana produces one-third of America's commercial fisheries — because of, not in spite of, these platforms.
All of this and not one major oil spill in half a century — not one. As more assurance, today’s drilling technology compares to the one used only 20 years ago about like the Kitty Hawk compares to a jumbo jet. The one that gave us the Santa Barbara Oil Spill in 1969 compares to today’s like a fossil."
What did happen when Hurricane Katrina struck? Where there no oil spills and accidents then?
Alaska Fishing Trip
http://www.thisisthelife.com/alaskatag=home.) I could see how going ice fishing in Alaska alaska fly fishing alas...
Have a look at this and decide whether the oil industry really has had a positive infulence on the region:
"Petroleum exploration, production, and transportation in the Louisiana coastal zone increased dramatically from the early 20th century to the 1970s. Oil and gas production in inshore bays and wetlands of the coastal zone then decreased beginning in the late 1970s, but there is still a high level of transportation of oil and gas through the coastal zone from the OCS and Louisiana Superport. These activities have had
significant impacts on floral and faunal communities, resulting in significant deterioration of coastal and
406 Wetlands: Impacts of Energy Development in the Mississippi Delta wetland ecosystems. These impacts are related to the toxicity of spilled oil and the secondary and indirect effects of petroleum-related activities such as alteration
of hydrology. The impacts of OCS development
are related to construction of pipelines and navigation channels. Thus, the risks of oil spills and hydrological disruption continue, even though inshore oil and gas production has decreased.
Responses of plant metabolism to oil impacts are
complex, depending on exposure type (e.g., oilcoated leaves vs soil contamination), oil type (e.g., crude oil vs number 2 oil), time of spill (e.g., after the growing season vs before the growing season), density of spilled oil, and sensitivity of various marsh plant species to oil. Another complex matter is the impact of oil cleanup on wetlands. Removal of oil has been reported to cause significant damage to wetland communities, including reduced growth of marsh plants and reduced population of benthic organisms.
Lin and colleagues suggested that methods and
intensity of oil spill cleanup depend on the type and amount of spilled oil and environmental conditions at the time of the spill. If the spill is a relatively small volume and the floating oil is not continuous, light or no cleanup action is recommended. In the case of large-volume oil spills, cleanup activities consisting of sorbent application, low-pressure flushing, vacuuming,
rope mops, and the like should be considered as options. However, Lin and colleagues did not recommend the use of heavy equipment and intrusive mechanical cleanup due to the concerns of
physical damage to fragile marshes.
Louisiana experienced a high rate of coastal marsh
loss during the 20th century. This high loss rate has been attributed to a number of factors. The
immediate cause of much loss is due to plant stress resulting from both natural and anthropogenic causes, followed by plant dieback, subsequent erosion of the marsh substrate, and the formation of small ponds that then coalesce into larger open water bodies. Causes of plant stress in Louisiana marshes have been attributed to waterlogging stress (due to insufficient elevation of the marsh surface resulting from high subsidence rates in the deltaic plain and
low accretion rates) and salinity stress (due to
saltwater intrusion, often from storm surge events, into the more interior marshes).
Petroleum-related activities have contributed significantly to wetland loss in the Mississippi Delta. Oil and gas extraction increased the subsidence rate, sometimes by a factor of as high as 2 to 3, due to reduction of pressure that led to faulting-related subsidence. On the surface, canals significantly altered natural hydrology. Deep dredged canals altered water flow pathways and sometimes resulted in saltwater intrusion. Spoil banks reduced overland flow exchange and sediment input to the wetland surface. The combination of these two factors increased plant stress and plant death."
from http://www.lsu.edu/cei/research_projects/Wetlands_final.pdf
Isn't annoying how these pesky scientific studies get in the way of a blog post.
Any artificial reef has the same effect.
I installed a tourist pontoon at the reef, out from the Whitsundays, & in a couple of weeks we had a huge fish population.
Its not just the fish, the birds came just as quickly, & the population was even bigger. The stink from the droppings was unbelievable, & it took 30 minutes with a 2" fire hose to fix.
Prior to installing living quarters, & full time crew, I had to fly someone out by sea plane to clean the thing before the tourist boat arrived.
I tried one of those electric squawker things, guaranteed to keep birds away.
After one period of 6 days of heavy weather, too rough for tourists, we flew out to check & clean before resuming operations.
Most of the pontoon was covered in 2 to 3 Cm of droppings, but the squawker was under 30 Cm. They realy liked it.
Hi Neil,
In your analysis, don't forget the ubiquitous and also parasitic human sub species
H. sapiens cynicus paranoidium conspiracy-theoristus that infests all facets of life, particularly the blogosphere.