Rigs to Reefs Report (4MB PDF)
Should dry oil and gas platforms be left as part of a viable marine ecosystem? To address this question, Coastkeeper hosted the first ever Rigs to Reef Conference at the Waterfront Hilton Beach Resort on March 30th. Sponsored by Coastkeeper, CARE, and CEMR, the conference brought together educators, government agencies, researchers, and other stakeholders to discuss emerging information on the issue of artificial reefs. In a stirring keynote address, "Sturgeon General" Dr. Sylvia Earle brought Rigs to Reef into the context of the big picture--our oceans. The Rigs to Reef Conference was an exciting step in a cooperative effort to address soon-to-be obsolete oil platforms off the California Coast. Check out Rigs to Reef news coverage and our event summary to learn more about the conference and this emerging issue.
The Rigs to Reefs Conference will focused on the key environmental, economic and policy issues related to establishing a California Rigs to Reefs Program. The oil and gas platforms along California’s coast will eventually run dry and be decommissioned. A debate has begun about whether or not these platforms should be left in place to preserve the marine life, which arguably thrives in this environment, or if the oil companies should follow the original mandate to remove the entire structure.
Today, there are 27 platforms in both federal and state waters. Since their installation, the structures have become home to a rich diversity of both fishes and invertebrates. Among the fish that live there are several severely depleted rockfish species, including five that have been officially designated as “overfished” by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Is this abundance of marine life an illusion or is it real? Is it valuable to the marine environment and worth protecting or not? We invite you to hear the latest information on the decommissioning of oil platforms and formulate your own opinion.
The Conference brought together a multi-disciplinary audience of scientists, educators, regional, state, and federal agencies, researchers, stakeholders, recreational and commercial fishers, students, environmentalists and policy-makers all interested in discussing the emerging information of Rigs to Reefs. This daylong conference provided participants with an excellent opportunity to network throughout the day.
This event included dynamic keynote presentations and interactive panel discussion sessions on some of the most critical issues facing our coastal environment as it relates to decommissioning the oil and gas platforms. These topics include:
- The Ecological Roles of Platforms
- The Process of Platform Decommissioning
- Stakeholder Interests
- Environmental Issues of Decommissioning and
- Economic and Policy Issues of Decommissioning
Speaker biographies are available by following this link
(PDF).
Speaker abstracts are available by following this link
(PDF).
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