The Pinnacles (Gulf of Mexico) lawmakers, fishermen and the oil industry. The Pinnacles (Gulf of Mexico) The Pinnacles is a rocky prominence on the Continental Shelf approximately 300 feet deep and located about 70 miles off the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama which contains a wide-ranging reef formation. The Pinnacles reefs consist of a lush fauna of hard, soft and, black corals, fixed sea lilies and sponges. The reef creates a living habitat for a well-developed and diverse fish culture. Snappers and groupers spawn here. Typical Caribbean reef fishes and Carolinian shelf fishes, along with epipelagic fishes, and a few deep-sea fishes populate the reef.
Gulf of Mexico Foundation Paul Kelly, a former senior executive at Rowan Companies, an oil drilling firm. Other board members are executives from Shell Oil Company, ConocoPhillips, Transocean oil drilling firm, and legal, environmental and marketing firms. At least half of the 19 board of directors have ties to the offshore oil drilling industry. Gulf of Mexico Foundation partners include major oil companies and oil drilling firms, and others concerned for the environment. They include BP, Transocean, Marathon, ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil Company, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Rowan Companies and the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund. The Foundation has a reported $2 million annual budget, and one-quarter