Sammendrag
In the Gulf of Mexico, policies supporting the conversion of obsolete offshore oil platforms into artificial reefs, which is colloquially known as rigs-to-reefs, developed in the 1970s and 1980s as interest was growing in determining the environmental effects of offshore platforms. This paper analyzes the historical development of rigs-to-reefs programs in the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico during the 1970s and 1980s, with a particular focus on the main promoters of conversion. In these states, sports fishermen interested in improving their catches of large sport fish were particularly active as program advocates. This paper will argue that rigs-to-reefs as an idea was developed not at the behest of the offshore oil industry, but rather through encouragement from recreational fishing interests and others interested in increasing the number of fish in the region. Rigs-to-reefs in the Gulf was framed by biologists studying the Gulf ecosystem as well as social scientists studying fishing recreation as a win-win solution: oil companies would save money, fishermen would improve their catches, and the environment would improve. While conversion of obsolete platforms was promoted by state-level fisheries experts, convincing the oil companies to participate was not particularly easy. Even though oil companies might gain enhanced environmental reputation by supporting recreational fishermen, they were reluctant to participate in the rigs-to-reefs programs without financial benefit and liability indemnity. These concerns had to be addressed in the development of state-level schemes for rigs-to-reefs that would come into force in the early 1990s. Thus, this paper complicates the idea of rigs-to-reefs as a greenwashing scheme originating with oil interests, instead finding intersecting environmental interests at the core of the rigs-to-reefs concept.
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