Offshore oil rigs are supported on steel and concrete structures that extend thousands of feet to the ocean floor. Even as rigs pump fossil fuels, they’re also colonized by mussels, barnacles, rockfish, and other species, becoming artificial reefs.
Typically when wells run dry, rigs are dismantled, but Emily Callahan and Amber Jackson argue that more retired oil infrastructure should remain in place permanently, as habitat.
LINK (via: Pacific Standard)
