Corals saved from oil drilling rigs

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Oil companies and biologists have teamed to protect coral communities from the expansion of drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. researchers said.

Erik Cordes, a Temple University biologist, and a team of researchers later this month are to map out new coral sites with the aid of the Jason II, a remotely operated vehicle on loan from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts.

Funded by U.S. federal grants, the researchers are to set up so-called mitigation sites around coral communities and designate them as preserves that are off limits to oil drilling, Cordes said.

"The oil company can move a half-mile away to avoid these coral communities and still hit the same oil reservoir," Cordes said, adding the oil companies share data with him and in some cases collect coral samples for his team.

The corals provide a habitat for diverse species of fish and other organisms and form an important link in the carbon cycle between the shallow, productive surface waters and the deep sea, Cordes said.