Ecological Investigations Of Petroleum Production Platforms In The Central Gulf Of Mexico - Preliminary Findings
Authors: Bedinger C.A. 
Published: October 2008

Southwest Research Institute is presently managing a relatively large program in offshore ecology for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Department of the Interior. The study involves university and private subcontractors representing several scientific disciplines. Project objectives .are to assess the long term cumulative effects of production platform operation on the outer continental shelf (OCS) environment, and further define their "artificial reef" effect. These results are then to be used in helping (1) formulate future research on the DeS, (2) indicate monitoring techniques and, (3) to review present "benchmark" studies. The study area covers a broad expanse of the Louisiana "oil patch" from the Mississippi delta, west 200 miles and offshore 100 miles. Twenty-four stations have been visited during late spring and late summer, 1978, and winter, 1979, with four platforms sampled as primary sites during each season, 16 as secondary sites in the late summer and four controls in each season. The program was designed by BLM to cover, as broadly as possible, all production types, ages and surrounding ecosystems normal to the northcentral Gulf of Mexico. Collections and analyses have included basic hydrography; hydrocarbons in water, sediments and biota; trace metals from similar samples; sediment physical characterization; benthic microbiology; benthic biota; histopathology in fish and invertebrates; and platform associated fouling organisms and fish. This paper presents data from initial sampling and gives observations of trends from a number of Principal Investigators doing the actual work. The major observation realized is that the Mississippi River overshadows man's activities in affecting the environment in that it overrides ocean water over a considerable area in the near shore during the summer months causing an oxygen decline and subsequent die off and emigration of organisms.

INTRODUCTION

This paper reports early observations from data taken during May through December 1978 on a program still in progress to determine environmental effects of offshore production platforms. This presentation will show the design of the program, depth of assessment, trends in data recovered to date, indications of the meaning of these data, and the scientists involved. The project is funded by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Department of the Interior and is managed by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) with a team of respected university, industry and Institute scientists. I hasten to proclaim that this paper is the product of many investigators and that to try to list all as authors would not be practical. My intent is to credit each scientist by reporting his results and to work toward integrating criticism from this presentation into a final report of this study in late summer.

The results given here have been solicited from each of the eleven Principal Investigators, then reviewed and approved as substantive remarks. Since results are preliminary, the research team trusts readers to use them as such until final data synthesis is reported in September 1979.

The list of investigators who have contributed to this paper is given in Figure 1. Those with questions or criticism about particular data are encouraged to contact these scientists through me or directly.