The following scientific findings are from “The Ecological Role of Oil and Gas Platforms and Natural Outcrops on Fishes in Southern and Central California: A Synthesis of Information”, June 2003:

1. “Rockfishes, totaling 42 species, dominated these (platform) habitats.”
2. “Our research demonstrates that some platforms may be important to regional rockfish production.”
3. “Platforms usually harbored higher number of young-of-the-year rockfishes than natural outcrops and thus may be functionally more important as nurseries.”
4. “In some locations, platforms may provide much or all of the adult fishes of some heavily fished species and thus contribute disproportionately to those species’ larval production.”