“If you have any doubts, ask 
one of the men who ran sports 
fishing boats in the Gulf,” says 
H. E. Braunig, a Manager of En- 
vironmental Affairs at Gulf Oil. 
“When they want to guarantee 
their customers a good day’s fish- 
ing, they head straight for the oil 
platforms. 
“Twenty universities 
anti thousands of 
fish say oil plat- 
forms don’t hurt 
the environment." 
“What happens around the 
bottom of the oil platforms is 
ecologically identical to what 
happens around any natural reef. 
“A food chain starts. Mussels, 
anemones, starfish, anything 
that likes to live on a solid under- 
water surface, all come first. Then 
the fish that feed on them; and 
so on, until a whole ecosystem 
builds up. 
“Even with the oil platforms, 
it’s life as usual in the Gulf of 
Mexico — even for the commer- 
cial shrimp and oyster fishermen, 
whose livelihood depends on 
clean water. 
“That’s living proof that 
offshore platforms aren’t ecologi- 
cally destructive. A two-year 
study by twenty Gulf Coast uni- 
versities, concluded in 1974, says 
the same thing. 
“Gulf people are meeting a lot 
of challenges in getting the oil 
out while preserving the environ- 
ment. This problem just seemed 
to solve itself; and with continual 
environmental monitoring and 
sampling, on all current and 
future offshore sites, we intend to 
make sure it stays solved.” 
Gulf people: 
energy for tomorrow. 
(c) Gulf Oil Corporation 1981 
