Okay, I don't pretend to know anything at all about deep-sea ecology. But this has got to be bullshit of the first order:
Deep-water oil and natural gas platforms may become be [sic] as beneficial as a federal study has shown shipwrecks to be in creating habitats for undersea plants and animals, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said on Thursday.
"The biological analyses conducted during this investigation concluded that as petroleum exploration and production expands into deeper Gulf water, platforms could potentially provide a habitat for marine life," Lars Herbst, acting MMS Gulf region director, said in a statement.
Could the oceanographic ecology experts help me out here? Because, to me, this has "oil-industry-paid-for propaganda study" written all over it.