CONVERTING OIL RIG TO REEF PROVES TO BE A SLICK MOVE.

Byline: Bill Schulz Associated Press 

Louisiana doesn't have many natural reefs in its Gulf waters, but it has plenty of oil rigs. So biologists decided the way to improve fishing was to turn rigs into reefs.

It sounds so simple. When the oil company is finished with the rig, it cuts its legs and tips it over - instant reef.

And it works.

``We're making habitat to attract reef-type fishes where you won't commonly find them,'' says Rick Kasprzak, coordinator of the artificial-reef program for the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. ``What the oil industry did is provide hard-bottom habitat in areas where you don't find it.''

Anglers have known for years that fish hang around oil rigs. At the same time, the state tried to figure out a way to keep the rigs when their working lives were over.

With passage of the National Fishing Enhancement Act, which transferred any liability from the donor of the reef to the state which received it, things got moving.

Louisiana established its program in 1986 with parallel state legislation and toppled its first rig in '87.

When an oil company is ready to get rid of a rig, it and the state get together to plan and get permits. Usually the oil company wants to keep the deck and upper part of the rig, which can be reused.

``Then they sever the platform from the sea floor, using mechanical methods or explosives, whatever is the safest and most economical,'' Kasprzak said. ``Then they attach anchor cables to the platform and just pull it over.

``They use a derrick barge, about a 600-foot vessel. They spread anchors out to grab hold of the sea floor, then attach another set of cables to the platform itself, then, using winches, pull it over.''

Frequently the platform has to be moved. Then workers use huge cranes on the barge to lift the rig off the sea floor and the whole assemblage is towed to the reef site. Then the cranes lay the rig down on its side.

The hard surface provides a place for the floating larvae of such creatures as corals and sponges to attach and set up housekeeping.

Hard substrate is 15 times as productive as sand bottom, said Daniel Frumkes of the American Sportfishing Association.

``At least it has that density of marine life. We have watched larvae settle and become the animal they're destined to be,'' he explained. ``They attract marine animals. (At the artificial reefs) there's lots for them to eat. When they attract animals, they attract predators, predatory fish, mammals and man.''

After a few decades, the steel becomes encrusted with the marine organisms and looks almost like a natural coral reef.

Biologists try to put the oil rig reefs where they are out of the way of shipping and commercial fishermen but within reach of sport anglers.