Oil Platforms Save Rockfish

Rockfish thrive in offshore oil and gas platforms, an alternative nursery habitat to natural reefs.

A survey in 2003 found that about 430,000 of the species known as bocaccio took residence in eight of these structures in platforms off the coast of southern California.

This number equals about 20 percent of the average number of juvenile bocaccio that survive annually for the geographic range of the species. When these juveniles become adults, they will contribute about one percent of the additional amount of fish needed to rebuild the Pacific Coast population, the researchers wrote.

According to the researchers, juvenile rockfish need something hard, like a rock overhang or a man-made structure, to "settle out" and develop a home base.

Then they join a school and swim around their structure. The school helps to protect them from predators. Staying in one place allows them to eat the plankton that drift by in the ocean currents.

If the juveniles were to drift out to sea with the currents, they would likely be eaten by predators, or starve to death once they ate all the nearby plankton floating with them. The platforms provide structures that the rockfishes need to thrive.

The findings are detailed in the current issue of the journal Fisheries Bulletin.

--LiveScience Staff

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Credit: UCSB