Flies keep landing on North Sea oil rigs

Insect migration and capabilities

• Commenters are astonished that hoverflies migrate seasonally over continental scales and across oceans, sometimes over multiple generations.
• Comparisons are made to monarch butterflies and painted lady butterflies, which also have well‑studied multi‑generational migrations.
• Several people marvel at how such tiny creatures store enough energy and achieve such efficiency, noting their reliance on wind currents, thermals, and high‑altitude “bug highways”.
• It’s noted that many insects likely die at sea; oil rigs only reveal the small subset that successfully find land (a “survivor bias” observation).
• Close‑up views of insects are described as a visceral reminder of biological complexity and “room at the bottom”.

Ecological role of oil rigs

• Offshore rigs are described as artificial islands that can be surprisingly beneficial for marine life, acting like reefs around abandoned structures.
• There’s tension between preserving these rig‑reefs vs. removing all traces of human infrastructure; some argue full “cleanup” would destroy the ecosystems that formed around them.
• Others emphasize that the major environmental risks are wells, leaks, and pipelines, not the bare platforms themselves.
• Concerns are raised that helping insects and other species cross barriers (like oceans) could facilitate invasions and harm ecosystems at the destination.
• Side thread on oil use: some wonder if crude could be used without combustion (e.g., durable plastics, asphalt), but replies stress CO₂ emissions, limits of plastic recyclability, and imbalanced demand for different fractions.

Generation ships and long‑term missions (sparked by multigenerational flies)

• The flies’ multi‑generation migration inspires a long discussion on human interstellar travel via generation ships, orbital colonies, O’Neill cylinders, and Oort‑cloud “island hopping”.
• Technical issues raised: perfect recycling, ecosystem size (Biosphere 2 as a partial, flawed experiment), fuel limits, inability to decelerate or turn back, and constraints of light‑speed communication (even with hypothetical ansibles).
• Social and psychological challenges dominate:
  • Will later generations care about or even understand the founding mission?
  • Mission maintenance via culture, religion, propaganda, or strict indoctrination vs the risk of rebellion and mission drift.
  • Analogies to historical colonies, religious institutions, cathedrals, and diasporas as examples of multi‑century goal persistence.
  • Questions about governance structures, class systems, reproduction control, and whether older, non‑reproductive people are “resource drains” in confined habitats.
• Some see these issues as a possible explanation for the Fermi paradox (percolation hypothesis), while others argue humans already manage multi‑generational projects.

Drones, efficiency, and bio‑inspired tech

• Insect flight is contrasted with human‑built drones; people infer massive efficiency gaps and speculate about future ultra‑light, thermals‑exploiting aircraft or “smart dust” swarms.
• There is interest in “machine migrations” using gliders that exploit atmospheric energy, but skepticism about scaling this to heavy cargo.

Scientific collaboration and curiosity

• Commenters appreciate the story of an offshore engineer systematically collecting fly specimens, contacting researchers, and contributing to published science as an example of fruitful layperson–expert collaboration.