U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico OCS Region

Estimation of Fisheries Impacts Due to Underwater Explosions Used to Sever and
Salvage Oil and Gas Platforms in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico

OCS Study MMS 2000-087

The Minerals Management Service (MMS), Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, announces the availability of a new study report, Estimation of Fisheries Impacts Due to Underwater Explosions Used to Sever and Salvage Oil and Gas Platforms in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

This report presents results of a multi-year study designed to determine the abundance of fish populations, fish mortality resulting from explosives use, and other factors contributing to the mortality of fish populations at platform removal sites. Sampling sites included 10 platforms extending from the upper Texas coast to the Mississippi River. The research determined estimates of total potential mortality of selected fish populations from explosive platform removal as well as effects on fish stock productivity for those populations. Total population estimates were determined for selected species using tag and release methods. Four taxa of fish, Atlantic spadefish, blue runner, red snapper, and sheepshead, accounted for 86 percent of the estimated total mortality. Numbers of all other impacted species were far below those of the top four. Comparisons of estimated mortality considered variables such as water depth, longitude, platform age, season, surface salinity, and surface temperature. Results for the managed species red snapper also describe impact analysis including potential alteration of population status determinations and management recovery strategies. For red snapper, even when the mortality estimate was doubled, impacts were estimated to be small, well within the variation of our current assessments, and would not alter current determinations of status or current management recovery strategies.

For more information about this study or the Environmental Studies Program in general, contact the Environmental Sciences Section (MS 5430), 1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard, New Orleans, Louisiana 70123-2394, telephone (504) 736-2752.

You can obtain copies of the report from the Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, at a charge of $10.00 by referencing OCS Study MMS 2000-087. You will be able to obtain this report also from the National Technical Information Service in the near future. Here are the addresses. You may also inspect copies at selected Federal Depository Libraries.

MMS is the federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases. These collections totaled nearly $8 billion last year and more than $110 billion since the agency was created in 1982. Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and federal park and recreation lands.

-MMS-GOM-
MMS's Website Address: http://www.mms.gov

Return to Technical Announcements