Artificial reef properties of North Sea oil and gas production platforms

Offshore oil and gas platforms are known to function as artificial reefs. They provide a large surface area for settlement and aggregate large numbers of fish. Footage obtained during the routine structural inspections of North Sea rigs was used to investigate patterns in the fouling communities present on these structures. A clear zonation pattern was found, which was generally consistent between the various legs of a single large platform despite some differences in the fouling of these legs at certain depths, mainly due to large fluctuations in the abundances of two species, Metridium senile and Lophelia pertusa. These data also indicated that the differences might be related to the position of the legs. Furthermore, a striking difference was found when data from this first study site were compared with initial findings from another nearby rig in very similar physical conditions, but of different age.