{"id":5892,"date":"2014-08-06T14:05:49","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T14:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/?p=5892"},"modified":"2021-05-19T01:04:11","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T01:04:11","slug":"decom-world-group-launches-campaign-to-scrap-rigs-to-reefs-programs-in-gulf-of-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2014\/08\/06\/decom-world-group-launches-campaign-to-scrap-rigs-to-reefs-programs-in-gulf-of-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"DECOM WORLD: Group launches campaign to scrap Rigs to Reefs programs in Gulf of Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Rod Sweet<\/a> on Aug 6, 2014<\/h2>\n
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Operators hoping to cut decommissioning costs by reefing rigs in the Gulf of Mexico may have a fight on their hands now that a campaign has been launched by a diverse group including shrimp fishermen and conservationists to have the Rigs to Reefs program scrapped.<\/p>\n

Twenty-three individuals, among them university professors and people representing conservation groups, fishermen and tribal organizations, are signatories to a 23 July letter to US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell asking her department to require operators to remove rigs instead of converting them to reefs.<\/p>\n

They were joined on 30 July by Clint Guidry, president of the\u00a0Louisiana Shrimp Association, who told New Orleans\u2019 Times-Picayune <\/i>newspaper that the oil industry should return the Gulf sea floor to \u201ctrawlable bottoms\u201d.<\/p>\n

The campaign coincides with the publication last month of a new book entitled \u201cBring Back the Gulf\u201d. Its authors, Richard Charter, senior fellow of the Ocean Foundation, and DeeVon Quirolo, a marine conservation consultant based in Florida, argue that <\/span><\/span><\/span>there is no scientific consensus that reefed platforms and jackets contribute to maintaining fish stocks \u201cor otherwise achieve overarching fisheries management goals\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead,\u201d they write, \u201cthese artificial underwater structures aggregate fish, thereby contributing to over-fishing. It also is apparent that they fail to equal or rival natural coral reefs in biological diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campaign will put pressure on BSEE, which last July expanded the scope for reefing rigs by removing the requirement for a five-mile buffer zone between designated reefing areas in the Gulf and by easing certain other restrictions on reefing rigs in place<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Around 450 platforms in the Gulf have been converted to reefs through state reefing programs since 1985. More than 300 of these are in Louisiana waters. Some environmental groups have contended that artificial reefs just attract more fish without promoting balanced habitats, thereby doing more harm than good.<\/p>\n

The 23 July letter, signed also by authors Charter and Quirolo, urges Interior Secretary\u00a0Sally Jewell to effect \u201cstrong and consistent implementation of the Department of Interior\u2019s Idle Iron policy requiring full decommissioning of spent oil and gas structures at the end of their useful economic life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter adds: \u201cThe permanent seabed placement of obsolete oil and gas extraction infrastructure invites more ecosystem damage rather than restoring it as originally envisioned.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Louisiana Shrimp Association\u2019s Clint Guidry also called for the complete removal of platforms, saying it would \u201chelp all users who have to navigate the Gulf\u201d. Shrimpers have opposed artificial reefs because they can tangle their nets.<\/p>\n

Signing the 23 July letter to Sally Jewell were:<\/p>\n