So ya wanna be a marine biologist...?

Very salty advice...

http://www.id.ucsb.edu/lovelab/biologist.html

Since l live down the street from UCSB I've heard Milton Love speak on several occasions. He is always a hoot. You have to get his book Every thing you want to know about Pacific Coast fishes if you plan on diving S. California

And along those lines here is another classic work of pure art:

http://perp.com/whale/video.html

Why do many real marine biologists (at least 2. . .), even those that actualy study marine mammals, pick on whale and dolphins lovers? After all, these cuddly animals are so happy they are always smiling? See reason number #1 at http://www.id.ucsb.edu/lovelab/biologist.html

Have you hugged a squid today? :?

Cheers

Dave, I know Milton Love and the "Lovelab" well. I worked on the California rigs-to-reefs bill a few years back and he was highly involved.

JamesWood - Welcome back to Wetpixel!

Cheers

James "Wiseman" Wiseman

Our late unlamented governor vetoed that bill. Unfortunately because wealthy environmental groups headquartered here in Santa Barbara paid him to do so. One of the main reasons I voted for the Governator!

Yeah, Linda Krop of the EDC and those wacky Get Oil Out (GOO) folks...lol.

What I find INCREDIBLY ironic is that the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) teamed up with the So. Cal TRAWLER's association to fight the rigs-to-reefs bill. How messed up is that?!?!?!?

Cheers

James

Speaking as a marine biologist -

I study sharks and rays and harbor a deep loathing for those "damn dolphin-huggers"...Why? its simple - when people have to chose between Flipper and Jaws guess where the funding usually ends up... Ah the bitterness of finance envy...

cheers -

- MP

I've made about 4 rig dive trips. All were amazing. Every square inch covered with life. Shine your light. Brilliant colors everywhere. When our club made a dive everyone was impressed and thought that they should be saved to be dived. Even those who will only drive electric cars and believe that they can communicate telepathically with animals (which describes more than one person in our club; all of them very nice and sincere people).

Platform Grace; I believe.

Nice shot Dave. Gail and Grace are two of the best as they are big and have been in the water a long time. They ARE artificial reefs already.

Too bad that they are 2 of the first slated to be removed.

Cheers

James

If you go a little deeper around the rigs, this time in the Gulf of Mexico, you find all sorts of strange creatures. This deepwater squid grows to at least 7m long! This footage is from 3000m:

http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/GDD/serpent/fil...epth%20%232.avi

Can that bill be re-introduced to Gov. "Conan"? or is it vetoed without any type of appeal? Pretty tragic to destroy the ecosystems that have grown, especially considering all the photographic evidence folks must have of the life there.

What made the ex-governor decide to go along with the EDC, anyway?

Environmentalists in So Cal have made it into an "environment vs Big Oil" debate, i.e. voting for the bill means voting for Big Oil.

There is some savings in not having to remove the steel jacket (tower section) and the original bill provides for this savings to be shared between the oil company and the State of CA.

Cheers

James

To make a guess at politics in CA I would say no. The Governator wants to establish environmental credentials. He probably feels he has far more important fights to wage than to take on some very wealthy environmental organizations over an issue few people care about.

Some savings?? My understanding was that the oil companies were going to donate a half a billion to enviromental projects in CA. That sounds like a nice donation and a lot of savings.

Interestingly on platform Grace there are layers of Metridiums as in this picture. And other layers of Corynactis as is the previous picture.

This is another that shows off both types.

David,

The environmental groups involved in this debate say that despite all the organisms, the "rigs" are not really habitat.

The one quote from Linda Krop was "You can find a seagull at a garbage dump, but would you call that seagull habitat?"

Personally, I strongly disagree with her on this one.

Cheers

James