Potential impacts of oil production platforms and their function as fish aggregating devices on the biology of highly migratory fish species

This review documents the current state of knowledge and gaps therein, as determined through a survey of published research on relevant topics, regarding the potential impacts of offshore oil production platforms (OPP) on the biology of highly migratory fish species (HMS) which include tunas, swordfish, billfishes, and oceanic sharks. There is a limited amount of published research directly related to HMS and OPPs. This may be due to the relatively recent offshore expansion of the industry and of studies. Most studies have focused on structure-associated species such as rockfishes and snappers. Within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, the most probable areas of interaction between HMS and OPPs occur in the Gulf of Mexico. This report focuses primarily upon this region, while noting that HMS roam the majority of the world’s oceans and may interact with petroleum infrastructure in many other locations. With such large stock boundaries it is unlikely that HMS interactions with OPPs will have a significant impact at the stock level, however, there could be impacts at local or regional levels.