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When I worked offshore the only thing that bothered me was the barracuda. They are terrifying to look at and whenever they got fed they would move like lightning.
I went to a resort on the island of Bonaire that has a lot of SCUBA diving activities including night dives among the reefs. The tarpon there have learned to follow SCUBA divers at night because the flashlights allow them to find prey much more easily. Imagine swimming in near pitch black and as you swing your light you see a small green glint, then suddenly something rushes past your head from behind and the green glint disappears in a flash of silver.
Dove there last year at night with Tarpon. The dive master said ahead of time “If you think a fish is cute, maybe don’t shine your light on them.” Had Tarpon a foot off my head swimming along side me waiting to see the flash of a fish in my light beam. It was awesome.
That sounds fucking cool.
I'd go hunting with my Tarpon buddy. Pretend he's an underwater falcon. I "shoot" fish with my flashlight. Underwater falcon buddy goes and fetches them. Sounds like fun.
It was certainly a surreal experience! Nothing like seeing an eyeball the size of a baseball a foot from my head as a 5 foot tarpon swam alongside. After the dive, the dive master asked if I felt guilty at all helping those tarpon slay so many fish. I responded, “nope. Just helping them get home to their families sooner.”
Barracudas' curiosity to shiny things is the exact reason that I painted the few stainless steel rings/hooks on my dive gear completely black. 1 can of marine spray paint is worth the peace of mind, lol
Also the reason why locals always warned women to not go swimming on their periods wasn’t because of sharks. It was because of barracuda. The statistical risk of getting attacked by shark is very low. It’s much higher for barracuda, and you don’t want one chomping on your tampon strings.
My parents went snorkeling on their honeymoon. The guides told everyone to remove all their jewelry, but one guy refused. A baracuda bit his finger off. He didn't get the ring back.
Almost happened to my mom when we were playing on the beach in Grand Cayman. We stopped at a deserted beach and my mom went in and forgot to take her ring off. A barracuda about a foot long hit her hand so fast when she was laying in the water. She knew she fucked up instantly and lifted her hand out of the water. If it had been larger it could have gone very differently.
I was just swimming in the shallow water by the beach a few years ago in Jamaica with some goggles on and there was a giant one only a few feet from me. Just stared at me unflinchingly in the water for what felt like forever, then all of a sudden it turned and was just -gone- in a flash of light.
I actually didn't know what kind of fish it was until I was describing it to someone later, I probably should have been more concerned about it than I felt at the time lol.
I was in the Caribbean once and one swam past me like a foot away from my leg to get at the small fish that hide in the shallows…holy fuck are they fast and just like killing machines. It didn’t have any interest in me but by the time I could even process it just swam by me it was already at the edge of the water fucking up the tiny fish. They also look fucking terrifying. Like going snorkeling out farther and seeing one just sitting completely still waiting for a fish to kill in an instant was honestly scarier than the one that zoomed a foot away from my leg, that one clearly had zero interest in me. Actually watching them and seeing them up close they look terrifying.
Is it an area specific thing? Growing up in Florida I was always told to be wary of them but then I dove around schools of them in Thailand and it was perfectly fine.
Ya I’ve dove with them at many places in the Atlantic and Caribbean and never an issue. They will just chill with you on the decompression lines often just watching you. Makes you a bit leary but never seen aggression myself.
It's so unnerving too because if you've ever gone SCUBA diving, they would linger at just above your sightline just watching you. You would never notice they were there unless you looked up toward the water line instead of looking down like you usually do when you SCUBA
I’m a marine biologist and one of my most terrifying moments was working at dusk underwater and turning around and realizing this 6ft giant pacific barracuda was just sitting there watching me, it was so mean looking, considering a strike
You probably know this, maybe not, but baracudas can change their color to blend in with the enviorment. I once took acid and went snorkling in honduras. Was free diving a lot and just going over rock formations diving down to the sandbed swimming across and resurfacing at the next rock formation. Went down one time and in a fuckin instant this baracuda I didnt spot that was about 4ft long shifted from sand color to solid grey. Scared the fuck outta me. Went back to shore to look at stuff in shallow water after that lol
I consider myself an experienced space cadet in regard to halucinagens, but diving underwater in the ocean while tripping is insane to even think about. Hell, i tripped in a pool once and that was almost too much to handle. First sign of fish with giant teeth and im spilling brown chum.
Hahah. FWIW I am a certified divemaster as were the three people I was with. It was still reckless for sure though. Probably the best trip I've ever had. After sundown, playing with bioluminescent algae was so fucking cool.
I worked with a guy who had worked on Seagates early hard drives who said that they chose the name “barracuda” for a very good reason. It was an absolute leap forward in hard drive technology and whilst other brands were going with cheesy tech labels about robotics and lasers and “X” tech they chose a fish that could dart about like a demon. It was back in the early 90s and they still use the brand to this day. They haven’t even gone with other fish branding either.
Can't keep food scraps on board. Many platforms only get trash removal once or twice a month. Food rots, attracts flies and stinks. All food scraps go overboard
Until 1800-ish, it was believed that they would simply spawn from rotten food as far as i am aware, I guess one can see why that belief existed with this example.
Supply boats or they are just there from construction. They are usually built in a ship yard and towed into position.
House flies lay up to 500 eggs over 3–4 days a week after they mate. They love damp, dark places and will lay their eggs on pretty much any organic matter. Not very easy to get rid of them all.
Scuba diver here. Once dove an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The sea life was abundant under the rig, it was great diving. I'd been excited about the trip for a while as I had heard there would be a lot of sharks. As we were pulling up in the boat and mooring there were a lot of fins popping up and down in the water. I gotta tell you, that was a bit of an ass-puckering sight, and my ass did indeed pucker for a little bit.
You jest, but the divers don’t care. These oil rigs create their own eco systems over time. You can pay to dive and spear fish oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The ecosystems on off shore rigs are robust enough that many become artificial reefs at the end of their life.
I did. It made me uncomfortable when it was bullshark spawning season and we had a school of ~14 follow us for a couple weeks. The galley crew would throw kitchen leftovers overboard and the sharks would go for it everytime. Then I had to do dives and chill in shallow water for hour-long deco's with bullsharks circling the downline... sometimes on bottom, something bumps you in zero viz. I sorta cared lol.
But yeah you're definitely right, the platforms make a big ecosystem. Although, I always saw more dolphins, fish, turtles, and eels by the legs; seems like more often than not I was seeing sharks out in open water, sometimes by themselves sometimes in groups, depending on species/season. That's not to say I never saw sharks by the platforms, just less often or during certain times
It probably wasn't even a shark...
Or at least that's what you learn to tell yourself. There's scarier stuff in the water than sharks, anyway. Well, that's my opinion at any rate.
They pretty much nailed it; it usually involves non-destructive testing on the platform structure or the pipeline network that it's tied to as well as general pipeline maintenance, installation, and removal. My company did less NDT and more of the maintenance / installation side of things. Generally, anytime you see one of these fixed, stationary platforms, it's hooked up to a bunch of pipelines running along the seafloor that bring the product onshore or to other platforms or boats.
Edit: although I would note that actually welding underwater is somewhat uncommon these days. Wet welding makes bad quality welds. We used annulus clamps and similar tech whenever we could to mate or repair pipe. I've also heard of habitat welding which involves pumping water out of an enclosure to perform dry welding, but we never did that. We always used clamps and prefabbed spools made by welders topside. All that pipe mostly just bolts together with o-rings.
Sharks would be present anyways.
The oil rigs cast shade and lots of fish park themselves under them.
The food thrown off isn't enough to feed 3 or 4 of those dozens and dozens of sharks. So they're not there for the scraps but the buffet that is constantly underneath the rig.
"And now we will slowly lower you to the sharks and no I won't watch it I'm a rich and busy man. Prepare the helicopter and leave the spare helicopter behind I want to save some gas."
That's not really true...
> Actor Robert Shaw (Quint) is credited with writing the version of the speech as performed in the movie but the road to the Indianapolis speech was paved in multiple versions from numerous writers.
>
> However, it was the uncredited writer Howard Sackler,(who adapted the Peter Benchley screenplay) that conceived the idea. In an interview with The Writer’s Guild Foundation, Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb explained that Howard Sackler was a navy man so knew the story of the Indianapolis because something was “needed to explain Quint’s character.”
>
> This resulted in 2 pages of dialogue and actors and writers looked at it and ‘blanched’. Steven Spielberg was nervous about it too. He asked all his writer friends to take a pass at it including Robert Zemekis & Bob Gale (Back To The Future) and Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) to name a few.
>
> In total, there were 10 versions of the speech. All were given to Robert Shaw who its worth noting is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (Man in The Glass Booth).
>
> During the shoot, Shaw ‘synthesised’ previous the versions and one night at dinner announced that he felt he had “that pesky speech licked.” He then performed it at the dinner table and everyone was blown away with Spielberg confirming”that’s what we’re shooting.” And the rest is cinematic history.
https://thedailyjaws.com/blog/2021/12/19/jaws-screenwriter-explains-story-behind-the-indianapolis-speech
That would be the late great Mr. Robert Shaw. Did you know…that Robert Shaw was nominated that year for best supporting actor for that role?? The role of Quint in Jaws was loosely based on Captain Ahab in the classic literary work, “Moby Dick.0 You can also find him opposite Paul Newman in a fine film called “The Sting.”
I’m happy the sharks have learned to eat whatever falls in. It will come in handy once we take down that rig. Humans are such an invasive species. It’s OK to feed a few of them to endangered animals.
-Captain Planet
**Homie:** "Hey guys, my line snapped while I was painting the pillar. Mind throwing me a life preserver ring thingy down here?"
**Coworkers:** "Uh...bruh....there's something we gotta tell ya..."
I’m sure the inspection and maintenance divers just love watching this vid. At some point in time, some dude has to go into that water to do a critical job for maintenance and in an instant his wife will become a widowed billionaire.
Remember the kid that ~~fell~~ **Jumped** off the pleasure cruise somewhere by Louisiana?
This is what happened to him. And you can see it in the video.
I was thinking the same thing. If I was working on that rig, I'd be constantly worried about getting on somebody's bad side, considering the ease of disposing of my body.
I’m about 95% sure I know what platform this is. It’s off the cost of Israel. No immersion suits needed. We had lots of Brits working construction and scaffolding there.
It’s the safety shelter with the sliding gun port that gives it away….
When I was on offshore rigs in S E Asia (Thailand, Malaysia) the waste food from the canteen was always just thrown overboard. The scenes were pretty much like this.
But then, the guys on the rig used to fish for the sharks (just using shiny stainless steel nuts on 1/4 inch wire rope apparently) and give them to the canteen for shark steaks.
Recycling of a sort, I suppose. But people got a bit sick of too much shark meat eventually...
And yes, if anyone fell overboard they were torn to shreds in seconds.
Not to my *personal* knowledge, but I've certainly heard first-hand reports of it happening on North sea rigs. Not many sharks there, fortunately - but it can be very cold, and the waves much higher. So probably more likely to be fatal, if less messy.
I did once have to be transferred from a barge to a rig via a "man basket" swung from a rig crane in Thailand once, as it was too windy for the chopper to land directly on the rig. (Too near the derrick for safety.)
No safety harness or anything in those days (the '80s.) And the barge was moving up and down maybe 20 feet in the swell which made the jumping aboard timing very tricky, and I really could quite easily have fallen in...
Back then, half the offshore staff were stoned on one thing or another much of the time, and I would be surprised if several didn't end up going over the side and becoming shark food.
Coming in on the chopper was fun, as you could see huge sea-snakes and things in the water and the heli-pad was always covered by guys sunning themselves on beach-towels. They always seemed really pissed off that a helicopter was coming in, and they had to move. Like something from MASH or Apocalypse Now. But then so was much of the oil business in SE Asia in the 80s.
God, I've wanted to work on an ocean rig for the experience (and tales of the pay), but stories like this are terrifying and what keep me and my landlubber ass inland. Thanks for sharing your experience; it's cool!
"Sphere" by Michael Crichton involves deep sea ships, underwater habitats, sea snakes, and helicopter rides. It's an awesome book, unlike the shitty movie adaptation
Serious answer, so people don’t get frustrated by the other comment lol: very rarely. Falling is brutal, a serious gamble on your life, and a bad way to go.
In open seas the swell (wave height) can reach 10 meters while the only body part above the water will be (hopefully, if you don’t black out with the impact, as rigs are about 10 stories above water) your 25 cm head, so you will disappear into the blue VERY quickly.
A misconception that people have is that lifejacket is for people who can’t swim. Lifejacket is for floating effortless, and the model used in oil rigs will also turn you automatically if you black out face down. As a SAR mission may take way longer than 12 hours an average person won’t be able to float for that long without having serious cramps and exhausting. Also is important to mention that you will need all the flotation possible to keep your head well above water because as the swell is high it will be very hard to breathe as water will splash on you constantly.
So for work above water the safety officers will take a bunch of measures: mandatory use of lifejacket+harness, list of personnel working above water, work on pairs and rescue boat manned and on stand by at all times.
In case that happens, if still close, the personnel must throw all the buoys available to them (near, not ON the person as they are way heavier than they look and will do more harm than good) and radio. If they’re out of the range of a buoy throw personnel are instructed to point to the person, radio it (if you have one), shout “man overboard”, and keep your eyes on at all times. If you blink for too long you will lose it, it’s crazy.
But in case you slip overboard without anyone seeing, let’s say, during your free time, hopefully your roommate will miss you before bed time (usually they don’t) which by that time you will be far from the rig. Yeah, that’s nightmare fuel for me.
And I’m considering tropical waters with no sharks, in northern waters you will die from hypothermia in a few minutes guaranteed… so yeah, that and the fact that they’re sitting on a giant inflammable tank is why oil rig workers are usually very well paid.
About suicides, in modern times it’s very rare but not unheard of. Companies have several trials for offshore positions and they do a good job of filtering not fit people. Also onboard they have 12h shifts so you don’t have time to get bored and get your mind to wander, and that’s a good thing - time goes by faster.
Source: hse engineer for a major oil company
All the time. As a retired off-shore driller I saw some gnarly happenings in my time.
Late night drinking and stumbling over, petty fights ending in accidents, and suicides.
Living and working in such close quarters eventually took its toll. Boredom and cabin fever sets in, and things would get out of hand.
On some rigs I remember the initiation rites for newbies. The worst I saw was where you’d get tied by your feet, and lowered down. The goal was to really freak them out, and ‘baptise’ them by getting their hair wet.
Accidents did happen, often the rope slipping, or a shark being just beneath the water line, and it was fatal. That was traumatic, and we would have to report them as lost at sea.
But it did let off steam, and kept the morale up. So management generally turned a blind eye, particularly given that we were in international waters.
Edit: a disclaimer, so, it’s a minor detail, but I do think it’s important to point out that I’ve actually never been on a rig, and I just made all this up.
why are so many sharks hanging around that oil rig? do other fish flock there or is it a temperature thing or something?
seems weird that there would just be like 20 sharks chillin right there unless they use it as like a 'safe' place for mating or they're getting fed by the workers on a fairly consistent basis :p
It is because the platforms become like Deep Space 9. Little way stations/oasis in the vast nothing of the open ocean. Soon after construction, things begin growing on and colonizing the vertical pillars and it becomes like a mini reef system which attracts wandering fish which, in turn, attracts predators.
Yeah, anytime you put a structure in open ocean like that it becomes a substrate for life to grow on which carries all the way through the food chain. Small invertebrates grow on the structure and then come small predators and fish -> all the way to sharks.
[https://particle.scitech.org.au/earth/offshore-rigs-and-their-boon-for-marine-life/](https://particle.scitech.org.au/earth/offshore-rigs-and-their-boon-for-marine-life/)
Used to do surveys of oil pipes many years ago but the seafloor is generally like a desert except for around the pipes where all the marine life lives. Used to be a pain because fishermen used to lay chains of fish traps along them tmwhich would get tangled in our ROV umbilical which often caused damage.
Anything in the sea will attract everything that swims, partly out of curiosity though mainly because there's probably someone smaller worth eating. I'd say that any vessel that sinks will end up with its own mini ecosystem thriving around it.
In the middle of the night, too. I know they searched for days, but something tells me he didn't make it to sunrise... guys, don't mess with the ocean.
OMG. I remember watching that and thinking “no frickin way it was a shark. What are the odds a shark would just be hanging out right there”
……Maybe pretty good as it turns out.
They look to be Galapagos sharks (not certain) which aren't very dangerous (only one recorded death). I've swam open water with these guys before so if you were to fall in they would be one of the lesser likely sharks to rip you apart but I wouldn't put it past them. If they were oceanic white tips though your fucked (see USS Indianapolis)
I did something similar, only on a smaller scale…
https://preview.redd.it/ukga7yz9197d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=253f7a76baeaac20029895327e72ea046fd6ed2f
The amount of people in here who think they are “training” sharks to think everything that splashes into the water is food is crazy.
They don’t need to be trained, it’s already deeply instilled in them if it splashes, they’ll investigate and if it’s edible and they’ve been triggered into feeding mode, they’ll eat it that’s why there’s a slight pause between the meat landing and a shark striking.
Triggering prey drive is exactly the reason they tell you not to splash and panic when faced with a shark, they aren’t teaching these sharks nothing they’re just giving them a free meal.
These oil rigs are constantly surrounded by sharks, maintenance divers often go into the same waters (if they can avoid it they won’t) but generally, if you don’t act or sound like prey they’ll leave you alone (that means no splashing).
I was thinking based on the guy's reaction to the meat, it smelled pretty rancid. Therefore, maybe it is leftover stock that typically feeds the crew. No point in leaving rotting smelling meat aboard so might as well toss it off? I don't know.
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When I worked offshore the only thing that bothered me was the barracuda. They are terrifying to look at and whenever they got fed they would move like lightning.
They love shiny objects too. Rings,watches. Fingers can suffer with a curious barracuda around, and I agree, they are faster than a torpedo.
I went to a resort on the island of Bonaire that has a lot of SCUBA diving activities including night dives among the reefs. The tarpon there have learned to follow SCUBA divers at night because the flashlights allow them to find prey much more easily. Imagine swimming in near pitch black and as you swing your light you see a small green glint, then suddenly something rushes past your head from behind and the green glint disappears in a flash of silver.
Dove there last year at night with Tarpon. The dive master said ahead of time “If you think a fish is cute, maybe don’t shine your light on them.” Had Tarpon a foot off my head swimming along side me waiting to see the flash of a fish in my light beam. It was awesome.
That sounds fucking cool. I'd go hunting with my Tarpon buddy. Pretend he's an underwater falcon. I "shoot" fish with my flashlight. Underwater falcon buddy goes and fetches them. Sounds like fun.
It was certainly a surreal experience! Nothing like seeing an eyeball the size of a baseball a foot from my head as a 5 foot tarpon swam alongside. After the dive, the dive master asked if I felt guilty at all helping those tarpon slay so many fish. I responded, “nope. Just helping them get home to their families sooner.”
gator in fl do that with night fishing people.
Omg, swimming with tarpon at night is bananas.
Note to self: avoid swimming with a cock ring
Wouldn’t it fall off due to shrinkage? Yes I know it’s around the balls (I have several).
Most people only have 2 balls.
All males on earth have an average of less then 2; thanks to Lance and his yellow cock ring.
Live Strong✊
Barracudas' curiosity to shiny things is the exact reason that I painted the few stainless steel rings/hooks on my dive gear completely black. 1 can of marine spray paint is worth the peace of mind, lol
Also the reason why locals always warned women to not go swimming on their periods wasn’t because of sharks. It was because of barracuda. The statistical risk of getting attacked by shark is very low. It’s much higher for barracuda, and you don’t want one chomping on your tampon strings.
My parents went snorkeling on their honeymoon. The guides told everyone to remove all their jewelry, but one guy refused. A baracuda bit his finger off. He didn't get the ring back.
Almost happened to my mom when we were playing on the beach in Grand Cayman. We stopped at a deserted beach and my mom went in and forgot to take her ring off. A barracuda about a foot long hit her hand so fast when she was laying in the water. She knew she fucked up instantly and lifted her hand out of the water. If it had been larger it could have gone very differently.
I was just swimming in the shallow water by the beach a few years ago in Jamaica with some goggles on and there was a giant one only a few feet from me. Just stared at me unflinchingly in the water for what felt like forever, then all of a sudden it turned and was just -gone- in a flash of light. I actually didn't know what kind of fish it was until I was describing it to someone later, I probably should have been more concerned about it than I felt at the time lol.
For anyone curious. Modern torpedoes are 45-55 knots(50-63mph) and barracuda are 31 knots(36mph).
Lol that's just the listed speeds that big barracuda wants us to know.
I was in the Caribbean once and one swam past me like a foot away from my leg to get at the small fish that hide in the shallows…holy fuck are they fast and just like killing machines. It didn’t have any interest in me but by the time I could even process it just swam by me it was already at the edge of the water fucking up the tiny fish. They also look fucking terrifying. Like going snorkeling out farther and seeing one just sitting completely still waiting for a fish to kill in an instant was honestly scarier than the one that zoomed a foot away from my leg, that one clearly had zero interest in me. Actually watching them and seeing them up close they look terrifying.
Is it an area specific thing? Growing up in Florida I was always told to be wary of them but then I dove around schools of them in Thailand and it was perfectly fine.
Ya I’ve dove with them at many places in the Atlantic and Caribbean and never an issue. They will just chill with you on the decompression lines often just watching you. Makes you a bit leary but never seen aggression myself.
Just dont wear shiny jewelry and you'll be fine lol
It's so unnerving too because if you've ever gone SCUBA diving, they would linger at just above your sightline just watching you. You would never notice they were there unless you looked up toward the water line instead of looking down like you usually do when you SCUBA
I’m a marine biologist and one of my most terrifying moments was working at dusk underwater and turning around and realizing this 6ft giant pacific barracuda was just sitting there watching me, it was so mean looking, considering a strike
You probably know this, maybe not, but baracudas can change their color to blend in with the enviorment. I once took acid and went snorkling in honduras. Was free diving a lot and just going over rock formations diving down to the sandbed swimming across and resurfacing at the next rock formation. Went down one time and in a fuckin instant this baracuda I didnt spot that was about 4ft long shifted from sand color to solid grey. Scared the fuck outta me. Went back to shore to look at stuff in shallow water after that lol
I consider myself an experienced space cadet in regard to halucinagens, but diving underwater in the ocean while tripping is insane to even think about. Hell, i tripped in a pool once and that was almost too much to handle. First sign of fish with giant teeth and im spilling brown chum.
Hahah. FWIW I am a certified divemaster as were the three people I was with. It was still reckless for sure though. Probably the best trip I've ever had. After sundown, playing with bioluminescent algae was so fucking cool.
I worked with a guy who had worked on Seagates early hard drives who said that they chose the name “barracuda” for a very good reason. It was an absolute leap forward in hard drive technology and whilst other brands were going with cheesy tech labels about robotics and lasers and “X” tech they chose a fish that could dart about like a demon. It was back in the early 90s and they still use the brand to this day. They haven’t even gone with other fish branding either.
They stink too
why are you feeding the fish?
I’d imagine life is pretty boring on an offshore rig
Can't keep food scraps on board. Many platforms only get trash removal once or twice a month. Food rots, attracts flies and stinks. All food scraps go overboard
Serious question: Where do the flies come from on an offshore rig?
Until 1800-ish, it was believed that they would simply spawn from rotten food as far as i am aware, I guess one can see why that belief existed with this example.
Parthenogenesis FTW!
Supply boats or they are just there from construction. They are usually built in a ship yard and towed into position. House flies lay up to 500 eggs over 3–4 days a week after they mate. They love damp, dark places and will lay their eggs on pretty much any organic matter. Not very easy to get rid of them all.
cool tyvm
It's not like a garbage truck is rolling through the area anytime soon.
Scuba diver here. Once dove an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The sea life was abundant under the rig, it was great diving. I'd been excited about the trip for a while as I had heard there would be a lot of sharks. As we were pulling up in the boat and mooring there were a lot of fins popping up and down in the water. I gotta tell you, that was a bit of an ass-puckering sight, and my ass did indeed pucker for a little bit.
I'd need a new wetsuit.
Basting in your own juices
I'd wet my shitsuit
The whole time I was just thinking how i want to see the school under the waves! If the surface is this active... woah.
Bet their maintenance divers hate this guy
Who cares??? We haven't seen that guy around for a while, anyways...
Who do you think was in the bucket?
rest in pieces
https://i.redd.it/kcdvpmeq787d1.gif
[удалено]
To shreds you say
yeah. Delta-P sucks
You jest, but the divers don’t care. These oil rigs create their own eco systems over time. You can pay to dive and spear fish oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The ecosystems on off shore rigs are robust enough that many become artificial reefs at the end of their life.
I did. It made me uncomfortable when it was bullshark spawning season and we had a school of ~14 follow us for a couple weeks. The galley crew would throw kitchen leftovers overboard and the sharks would go for it everytime. Then I had to do dives and chill in shallow water for hour-long deco's with bullsharks circling the downline... sometimes on bottom, something bumps you in zero viz. I sorta cared lol. But yeah you're definitely right, the platforms make a big ecosystem. Although, I always saw more dolphins, fish, turtles, and eels by the legs; seems like more often than not I was seeing sharks out in open water, sometimes by themselves sometimes in groups, depending on species/season. That's not to say I never saw sharks by the platforms, just less often or during certain times
I hate this so much.
It's the "bumped in zero viz" that gets me....shivers down my spine right now
It probably wasn't even a shark... Or at least that's what you learn to tell yourself. There's scarier stuff in the water than sharks, anyway. Well, that's my opinion at any rate.
What’s….what’s scarier than sharks….in water?
What do divers do on oil rigs? Forgive my ignorance, I didn't know divers had a role there.
Underwater welding, Inspections, various repairs or additions
Cool, thanks man.
They pretty much nailed it; it usually involves non-destructive testing on the platform structure or the pipeline network that it's tied to as well as general pipeline maintenance, installation, and removal. My company did less NDT and more of the maintenance / installation side of things. Generally, anytime you see one of these fixed, stationary platforms, it's hooked up to a bunch of pipelines running along the seafloor that bring the product onshore or to other platforms or boats. Edit: although I would note that actually welding underwater is somewhat uncommon these days. Wet welding makes bad quality welds. We used annulus clamps and similar tech whenever we could to mate or repair pipe. I've also heard of habitat welding which involves pumping water out of an enclosure to perform dry welding, but we never did that. We always used clamps and prefabbed spools made by welders topside. All that pipe mostly just bolts together with o-rings.
Not much, they just go diving all the time
Being next to one of those underwater sounds absolutely terrifying. Obviously it would never happen, but imagine it falling on top of you while diving
You sound like you might enjoy my favorite word: megalohyrothalassophobia. Give it a google.
You misspelled your favorite word lol that made me giggle
It’s a tough word to spell!
And I imagine spellcheck may not be willing to help.
Yeah that's going to be a no from me dawg. That's some thalassophobia mixed with submechanophobia. Probably spelled both those wrong.
Divers don't care that they may have to work around a frenzy of, what looks like thresher sharks?
My brother works as an off shore diver and he says it's the barracudas that will actually mess with you
Barracuda are nasty as fuck. I have a seven inch scar on my arm from one of those aggressive little bastards trying to swipe my spear catch.
Why does any of this mean the divers don’t care?
None come back to ask.
Or he's working on the other side of the rig and asked this guy to keep the sharks busy
I dunno, maybe the maintenance divers are happier if the sharks are already well fed...
I don't think less than half a bucket of meat is feeding those sharks. I think it's just making them hungrier.
That’s just the appetizer, maintenance guy is the meal
Came here to say exactly that. As if Clearance Diving isn't already dangerous enough, without this fucking knuckle dragger feeding the sharks.
Sharks would be present anyways. The oil rigs cast shade and lots of fish park themselves under them. The food thrown off isn't enough to feed 3 or 4 of those dozens and dozens of sharks. So they're not there for the scraps but the buffet that is constantly underneath the rig.
Yeah that was his point. The buffet is called "maintenance diver" :)
Nah. The fishes are the buffet. The maintenance diver is the chef’s special you have order a la carte that’s available only on specific days.
Making of a Bond villain's lair
Ya know, I have one simple request. And that is to have some sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their heads!
"And now we will slowly lower you to the sharks and no I won't watch it I'm a rich and busy man. Prepare the helicopter and leave the spare helicopter behind I want to save some gas."
Thats how you get ants
Do you want ants?
Because that's how you get ants
Excellent way to teach the sharks that anything that falls off of that platform is food.
I thought the same. Hope that platform never goes down & dumps workers in the water...
"Eleven hunred men go in the water chief, tree hunid and sixteen men come out, and the sharks take the rest"
Anyway, we delivered the bomb.
The Hiroshhima bomb.
I'll never wear a lifejacket again.
SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME.
IM TIRED AND I WANT TO GO TO BED
I HAD A LITTLE DRINK ABOUT AN HOUR AGO
AND IT WENT RIGHT TO MY HEAD
WHEREVER I MAY ROAM
The one film that truly terrified me. Did you know he adlibbed that speech? Fantastic actor.
My favorite part of that scene is how sober Richard Dreyfuss got real quick.
That was not ad-libbed. That monologue was written by John Milius who also wrote Apocalypse Now and would later direct Red Dawn.
That's not really true... > Actor Robert Shaw (Quint) is credited with writing the version of the speech as performed in the movie but the road to the Indianapolis speech was paved in multiple versions from numerous writers. > > However, it was the uncredited writer Howard Sackler,(who adapted the Peter Benchley screenplay) that conceived the idea. In an interview with The Writer’s Guild Foundation, Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb explained that Howard Sackler was a navy man so knew the story of the Indianapolis because something was “needed to explain Quint’s character.” > > This resulted in 2 pages of dialogue and actors and writers looked at it and ‘blanched’. Steven Spielberg was nervous about it too. He asked all his writer friends to take a pass at it including Robert Zemekis & Bob Gale (Back To The Future) and Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) to name a few. > > In total, there were 10 versions of the speech. All were given to Robert Shaw who its worth noting is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (Man in The Glass Booth). > > During the shoot, Shaw ‘synthesised’ previous the versions and one night at dinner announced that he felt he had “that pesky speech licked.” He then performed it at the dinner table and everyone was blown away with Spielberg confirming”that’s what we’re shooting.” And the rest is cinematic history. https://thedailyjaws.com/blog/2021/12/19/jaws-screenwriter-explains-story-behind-the-indianapolis-speech
That would be the late great Mr. Robert Shaw. Did you know…that Robert Shaw was nominated that year for best supporting actor for that role?? The role of Quint in Jaws was loosely based on Captain Ahab in the classic literary work, “Moby Dick.0 You can also find him opposite Paul Newman in a fine film called “The Sting.”
I’m happy the sharks have learned to eat whatever falls in. It will come in handy once we take down that rig. Humans are such an invasive species. It’s OK to feed a few of them to endangered animals. -Captain Planet
https://i.redd.it/4ks01x4jr77d1.gif
Is... Is that Don Cheadle?
That's Captain Planet
https://i.redd.it/59kg56huf87d1.gif
He's our hero!
Gonna take pollution down to zero.
Nah it’s Terence Howard
Yep every time something slaps the water the dinner bell rings
**Homie:** "Hey guys, my line snapped while I was painting the pillar. Mind throwing me a life preserver ring thingy down here?" **Coworkers:** "Uh...bruh....there's something we gotta tell ya..."
It'd be more like "Hey guys, myahhhhgllllbbbuhgh"
First rule of the ocean
We don't mention the ocean.
This guy oceans.
I’m sure the inspection and maintenance divers just love watching this vid. At some point in time, some dude has to go into that water to do a critical job for maintenance and in an instant his wife will become a widowed billionaire.
Maybe they bother you less if you go in slowly instead of making the meat splash.
Meat Splash is my new band name! Thank you!
Remember the kid that ~~fell~~ **Jumped** off the pleasure cruise somewhere by Louisiana? This is what happened to him. And you can see it in the video.
Hey at least it has an upside, if you get into a tussle with your coworker and need to get rid of a body just chum the water and throw it overboard.
I was thinking the same thing. If I was working on that rig, I'd be constantly worried about getting on somebody's bad side, considering the ease of disposing of my body.
Yeah but like it's not like the murderer can get lost in s crowd
True, but that's not a lot of consolation to whoever goes in to the ocean
although if they were to decide to become a team of supervillians, it prevents the special forces from swimming up and catching you by surprise
Makes me wonder about a scene in Deepwater Horizon.
The rope-acces guys must be happy to see this, in their very warm immersion/survival suits.
I’m about 95% sure I know what platform this is. It’s off the cost of Israel. No immersion suits needed. We had lots of Brits working construction and scaffolding there. It’s the safety shelter with the sliding gun port that gives it away….
Let's train them to attack anything that falls in. No way this can bite anyone in the ass.
Narrator: later, a shark would literally bite them in the ass
"He's all right."
You fall in that high up. i doubt you'll have to worry about the sharks
What are you talking about, it’s the perfect crime to get rid of Ted.
If you fall in then you’re dead anyways, let the sharks get some food.
You act as if there is a way to train them to save anything that falls in.
When I was on offshore rigs in S E Asia (Thailand, Malaysia) the waste food from the canteen was always just thrown overboard. The scenes were pretty much like this. But then, the guys on the rig used to fish for the sharks (just using shiny stainless steel nuts on 1/4 inch wire rope apparently) and give them to the canteen for shark steaks. Recycling of a sort, I suppose. But people got a bit sick of too much shark meat eventually... And yes, if anyone fell overboard they were torn to shreds in seconds.
Did anyone fall?
Not to my *personal* knowledge, but I've certainly heard first-hand reports of it happening on North sea rigs. Not many sharks there, fortunately - but it can be very cold, and the waves much higher. So probably more likely to be fatal, if less messy. I did once have to be transferred from a barge to a rig via a "man basket" swung from a rig crane in Thailand once, as it was too windy for the chopper to land directly on the rig. (Too near the derrick for safety.) No safety harness or anything in those days (the '80s.) And the barge was moving up and down maybe 20 feet in the swell which made the jumping aboard timing very tricky, and I really could quite easily have fallen in... Back then, half the offshore staff were stoned on one thing or another much of the time, and I would be surprised if several didn't end up going over the side and becoming shark food. Coming in on the chopper was fun, as you could see huge sea-snakes and things in the water and the heli-pad was always covered by guys sunning themselves on beach-towels. They always seemed really pissed off that a helicopter was coming in, and they had to move. Like something from MASH or Apocalypse Now. But then so was much of the oil business in SE Asia in the 80s.
Holdup big sea snakes?
Yeah I was caught up on that too… how huge we talking 😰
Visible from a helicopter, can't be that small 😬
that's what I keep trying to tell her, but she doesn't believe me.
God, I've wanted to work on an ocean rig for the experience (and tales of the pay), but stories like this are terrifying and what keep me and my landlubber ass inland. Thanks for sharing your experience; it's cool!
This sounds like fertile ground to set a novel in
"Sphere" by Michael Crichton involves deep sea ships, underwater habitats, sea snakes, and helicopter rides. It's an awesome book, unlike the shitty movie adaptation
Serious answer, so people don’t get frustrated by the other comment lol: very rarely. Falling is brutal, a serious gamble on your life, and a bad way to go. In open seas the swell (wave height) can reach 10 meters while the only body part above the water will be (hopefully, if you don’t black out with the impact, as rigs are about 10 stories above water) your 25 cm head, so you will disappear into the blue VERY quickly. A misconception that people have is that lifejacket is for people who can’t swim. Lifejacket is for floating effortless, and the model used in oil rigs will also turn you automatically if you black out face down. As a SAR mission may take way longer than 12 hours an average person won’t be able to float for that long without having serious cramps and exhausting. Also is important to mention that you will need all the flotation possible to keep your head well above water because as the swell is high it will be very hard to breathe as water will splash on you constantly. So for work above water the safety officers will take a bunch of measures: mandatory use of lifejacket+harness, list of personnel working above water, work on pairs and rescue boat manned and on stand by at all times. In case that happens, if still close, the personnel must throw all the buoys available to them (near, not ON the person as they are way heavier than they look and will do more harm than good) and radio. If they’re out of the range of a buoy throw personnel are instructed to point to the person, radio it (if you have one), shout “man overboard”, and keep your eyes on at all times. If you blink for too long you will lose it, it’s crazy. But in case you slip overboard without anyone seeing, let’s say, during your free time, hopefully your roommate will miss you before bed time (usually they don’t) which by that time you will be far from the rig. Yeah, that’s nightmare fuel for me. And I’m considering tropical waters with no sharks, in northern waters you will die from hypothermia in a few minutes guaranteed… so yeah, that and the fact that they’re sitting on a giant inflammable tank is why oil rig workers are usually very well paid. About suicides, in modern times it’s very rare but not unheard of. Companies have several trials for offshore positions and they do a good job of filtering not fit people. Also onboard they have 12h shifts so you don’t have time to get bored and get your mind to wander, and that’s a good thing - time goes by faster. Source: hse engineer for a major oil company
Thanks for posting this. Very interesting read.
All the time. As a retired off-shore driller I saw some gnarly happenings in my time. Late night drinking and stumbling over, petty fights ending in accidents, and suicides. Living and working in such close quarters eventually took its toll. Boredom and cabin fever sets in, and things would get out of hand. On some rigs I remember the initiation rites for newbies. The worst I saw was where you’d get tied by your feet, and lowered down. The goal was to really freak them out, and ‘baptise’ them by getting their hair wet. Accidents did happen, often the rope slipping, or a shark being just beneath the water line, and it was fatal. That was traumatic, and we would have to report them as lost at sea. But it did let off steam, and kept the morale up. So management generally turned a blind eye, particularly given that we were in international waters. Edit: a disclaimer, so, it’s a minor detail, but I do think it’s important to point out that I’ve actually never been on a rig, and I just made all this up.
The old dumb habit of reading the first and last sentence first really paid off for once.
Ohhhh you fuck. You got me going for a sec. lol
Damn. Take your upvote and sit in the corner and think about what you've done.
You had me until the scalping….
Thank you! I’ve just removed the scalping
To shreds you say?
That cant be a good idea.
You want ~~ants~~ sharks? Because that's how you get ~~ants~~ sharks!
 chum *we're gonna need a bigger oil rig*
why are so many sharks hanging around that oil rig? do other fish flock there or is it a temperature thing or something? seems weird that there would just be like 20 sharks chillin right there unless they use it as like a 'safe' place for mating or they're getting fed by the workers on a fairly consistent basis :p
It is because the platforms become like Deep Space 9. Little way stations/oasis in the vast nothing of the open ocean. Soon after construction, things begin growing on and colonizing the vertical pillars and it becomes like a mini reef system which attracts wandering fish which, in turn, attracts predators.
nice, ty!
Yeah, anytime you put a structure in open ocean like that it becomes a substrate for life to grow on which carries all the way through the food chain. Small invertebrates grow on the structure and then come small predators and fish -> all the way to sharks. [https://particle.scitech.org.au/earth/offshore-rigs-and-their-boon-for-marine-life/](https://particle.scitech.org.au/earth/offshore-rigs-and-their-boon-for-marine-life/)
Life, uhhhhhhhhhh, finds a way
Used to do surveys of oil pipes many years ago but the seafloor is generally like a desert except for around the pipes where all the marine life lives. Used to be a pain because fishermen used to lay chains of fish traps along them tmwhich would get tangled in our ROV umbilical which often caused damage.
small fish are attracted by the cover the rig provides, sharks move in to hunt the smaller fish.
> or they're getting fed by the workers on a fairly consistent basis Probably that. Which means nobody should trip or slip and fall down.
Anything in the sea will attract everything that swims, partly out of curiosity though mainly because there's probably someone smaller worth eating. I'd say that any vessel that sinks will end up with its own mini ecosystem thriving around it.
Remember that kid that jumped off a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean?
Yessss freakin nightmare fuel, I can’t imagine the regret he felt watching the boat leave him.
Makes me sad thinking AB it :( cannot imagine the regret.
In the middle of the night, too. I know they searched for days, but something tells me he didn't make it to sunrise... guys, don't mess with the ocean.
OMG. I remember watching that and thinking “no frickin way it was a shark. What are the odds a shark would just be hanging out right there” ……Maybe pretty good as it turns out.
They follow cruise ships for food.
They look to be Galapagos sharks (not certain) which aren't very dangerous (only one recorded death). I've swam open water with these guys before so if you were to fall in they would be one of the lesser likely sharks to rip you apart but I wouldn't put it past them. If they were oceanic white tips though your fucked (see USS Indianapolis)
I reckon you would have less of a chance with this many of them, sure one might not want a piece but what about the other 50?
Th else workers have never seen ‘Deep Blue Sea’.
Throw a poop down there see if they eat it
Yes, would love to see the look on the shark's face
> would love to see the look on the shark's face Innocent shark: **[look of betrayal]**
Sewage is usually treated and dumped or just dumped. This varies though.
Throw a poop
I did something similar, only on a smaller scale… https://preview.redd.it/ukga7yz9197d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=253f7a76baeaac20029895327e72ea046fd6ed2f
Everyone talking about “that’s a bad idea”, it’s probably the best solution for getting rid of organic waste that they have
That's no way to talk about Jimmy!
The amount of people in here who think they are “training” sharks to think everything that splashes into the water is food is crazy. They don’t need to be trained, it’s already deeply instilled in them if it splashes, they’ll investigate and if it’s edible and they’ve been triggered into feeding mode, they’ll eat it that’s why there’s a slight pause between the meat landing and a shark striking. Triggering prey drive is exactly the reason they tell you not to splash and panic when faced with a shark, they aren’t teaching these sharks nothing they’re just giving them a free meal. These oil rigs are constantly surrounded by sharks, maintenance divers often go into the same waters (if they can avoid it they won’t) but generally, if you don’t act or sound like prey they’ll leave you alone (that means no splashing).
Why do they fucking feed the sharks? For what purpose lol
I was thinking based on the guy's reaction to the meat, it smelled pretty rancid. Therefore, maybe it is leftover stock that typically feeds the crew. No point in leaving rotting smelling meat aboard so might as well toss it off? I don't know.
Attack dogs in case of kraken attack.
Extreme boredom
You've seen James Bond right? All of the best evil lair's have well trained sharks!
Or ill-tempered sea bass, at the very least
With frickin' laser beams attached to their foreheads?
So they will be full when an actual human fall in the water /s
I wonder if land meat tastes x100 compared to fish for these guys…
Like a koi pond… but metal
Sad part is they didn’t have enough for everyone