There are more than 12,000 offshore oil and gas platforms worldwide. As they drain their reservoirs of fossil fuels below the sea, they eventually become defunct when they produce too little fuel for extraction to be profitable to their operators.

However, beneath the waves, colourful fish, crabs, starfish and mussels congregate on huge steel pylons which stretch for more than 400ft to the ocean floor.

The big question is: what to do with these enormous structures when the fossil fuels stop flowing?

...the number of defunct rigs in the ocean is set to get bigger.

Removing them from the water is incredibly expensive and labour-intensive. Allowing them to rust and fall into disrepair is an environmental risk that could seriously damage marine ecosystems.

These old rigs can be remarkably useful: the subsurface rig provides the ideal skeleton for coral reefs. Teeming with fish and other wildlife, offshore rigs are in fact the most bountiful human-made marine habitats in the world.

FUN FACT: In 1984, the US Congress signed the National Fishing Enhancement Act which recognised the benefits artificial reefs provided and encouraged states to draw up plans to turn defunct rigs into reefs.

The five coastal states on the Gulf of Mexico – Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas – all have rigs-to-reefs programmes and have converted more than 500 oil and gas platforms into artificial reefs.

Reefing a platform is an attractive proposition for oil and gas companies as it is less expensive than total removal and is estimated to save the industry millions of dollars each year.

Campaigners say it is a win-win situation as companies spend half of their decommissioning savings on the state's artificial reef program. This money goes towards maintaining the platforms, marine conservation and education.

Due to the abundant marine species living underneath the rigs, the platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have become hotspots for diving, snorkelling and recreational fishing.

The Blue Latitudes organization out in California started in 2014 to raise awareness about the benefits of rigs and persuade oil companies and governments to designate them as permanent reefs.

They're trying to help the general public understand there are other ways we can look at complex ideas in our oceans, such as repurposing manmade structures into artificial reefs.

Blue Latitudes has reefed rigs from Thailand to West Africa, preventing more than a dozen large marine ecosystems from being wiped out.

Offshore rigs are among the most productive fish habitats in the world, They provide marine wildlife with food, shelter from predators and a safe breeding ground.

For some species, the rigs are even better nurseries than natural reefs.
One of the big beneficiaries is rockfish, stocks of which have been heavily depleted due to overfishing along the US West Coast. These fish are found in abundance around oil platforms. The platforms have helped revive the critically endangered bocaccio rockfish to boost
the adult stock of the Pacific Coast population by 3%.

One reason for this affinity is the platform acts as a pinnacle and allows fish to move into deeper water as they mature, without having to leave their habitat. Typically, fish living in shallow reefs will leave their habitat when they are fully grown and venture out to open sea. The fish found on oil rigs simply have to move down the platform, without ever venturing far from their refuge.

Many scientists are calling for Californian platforms to be preserved as artificial reefs, given the bountiful ecosystems they harbour.

Blue Latitudes says the aim of rigs to reefs is to protect valuable marine habitats by offering an alternative to complete platform removal.

If California's platforms are toppled, it would result in the loss of 27 huge marine ecosystems. California platforms are some of the largest and deepest in the world. You can’t even see the beams, they are so encrusted with marine wildlife.
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