OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 385 



Mr. McKernan. That is correct. 



Mr. Drewry. Is lie not one of your representatives ? 



Mr. McKernan. Yes, he certainly is. In fact, they also had Mr. 

 Eckles from our office as a consultant. It was not my understanding 

 that we had selected the sites, but we certainly had an opportunity to 

 critically review the sites which were suggested by AEC and by this 

 group. To my knowledge, we did not specifically select the sites 

 ourselves. 



Now I want to confess, Mr. Counsel, that there may be something 

 here I have not been informed about, but to the best of my knowledge, 

 we did not select the sites. 



Mr. Drewry. Perhaps my recollection is faulty. Do you know how 

 the sites were selected ? 



Mr. McKernan. I believe the general area was determined by AEC 

 and then the specific sites were selected on the basis of all the knowl- 

 edge available about the resources in that particular area, both with 

 respect to concentrations of fish and concentrations of fishing. There 

 were undoubtedly a great many other considerations also, but in fish- 

 eries, with respect to fisheries considerations, we considered whether 

 there were the resources present and where they were present and 

 where they were harvested and attempted to pass judgment on that 

 particular basis — again, of course, being assured these were low-level 

 wastes and being assured that they were not of a level that would 

 have adverse effects on the aquatic resources in the region where the 

 wastes were dumped. 



Mr. Drewry. How did you determine what resources were there? 



Mr. McKernan. We have fairly broad knowledge from our own 

 exploratory research on the various coasts of the United States and 

 in addition there are published records from the States and other 

 research agencies and from the commercial fisheries themselves. Tak- 

 ing all these data into account, the decision was based on that. 



Mr. Drewry. Was there any actual on-site fishing done before the 

 sites were selected ? 



Mr. McKernan. In most of the areas we had fairly good knowl- 

 edge. Someone might disagree with me in that regard, but we felt 

 that before a decision was made we had made an adequate study of 

 the area suggested so that we did know whether or not fisheries re- 

 sources, which perhaps were not as yet utilized, might be affected or 

 whether the fishing operations themselves might be affected. Dr. 

 McHugh has a comment on this. 



Mr. McHuGH. There is one other point which is that as I under- 

 stand it, these sites were chosen as far as possible in particular spots 

 where fishing was not possible because there were wrecks or were 

 already explosive dumping areas, or something like that. It would 

 be difficult, in other words, if not entirely impossible, for a vessel to 

 actually go trawling on that spot and pick up one of these containers 

 even if they tried. 



Mr. Drewry. Is that the criterion, the use of trawlers ? 



Mr. McI^RNAN. Other forms of fishing gear used in that particular 

 vicinity. 



Mr. Drewry. I am not too much of a fisherman but a wreck is a 

 rather attractive spot. 



Mr. McKernan. For handline fishing sometimes. 



