386 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



Mr. Drewry. Do you take the individual sport fisherman into 

 account ? 



Mr. McKernan. The level of waste is so low as to not affect the 

 fish that might come in reasonably close contact with this material. 



Mr. Drew^ry. I understand these areas would be forbidden to fish- 

 ing, that they would be marked off. 



Mr. McKernan. Actually fish will and do migrate in those various 

 vicinities. Any particular wastes that are of a level which would 

 contaminate either the plankton itself or the fish themselves would 

 not be desirable nor would we want to approve such an area. 



Mr. Lennon. Would counsel yield to me at that point ? 



Mr. Drewry. Certainly. 



Mr. Lennon. Dr. Lieberman yesterday suggested the strong likeli- 

 hood where this material was dumped it would have to be restricted, 

 patrolled, or at least marked off' with buoys. 



Mr. McKernan. You cannot keep the fish from migrating past it. 



Mr. Lennon. You can keep the fishermen out. Do you know any- 

 thing of the sports fisheries along the South Atlantic coast ? I know 

 you do not spend a dime in research on it. All the fine material the 

 doctor brought to us this morning was based on commercial fisheries. 

 I do not know 'that the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries spends any- 

 thing at all on the sports fisheries. 



Mr. McKernan. A great deal of our research applies to resources 

 harvested bj^ anyone, commercial or recreational. 



Mr. Lennon. We have in the last 2 years found white marlin and 

 blue marlin in the very area I am talking about, a tremendous catch 

 of them. One boat boated five about 3 weeks ago. We found out 

 ourselves they are there. They have been there all the time but we 

 learned how to fish them. They are in the very area where you sug- 

 gest now they plan to dump this low-level waste material. 



That is sort, of disturbing to party boat operators and fishermen to 

 find that they have finally discovered a fishing ground that people are 

 coming to. The Atlantic Ocean is a mighty big place and it seems 

 you could find a place other than 20 miles offshore for this dumping. 

 It does not make sense to me. 



Mr. McKernan. We will certainly explore those sites you 

 suggested 



Mr. Drewry. You mentioned there might be some disagreement 

 with you as to whetlier these sites were presently fishable. I would 

 say there is. We had testimony yesterday of Mr. Downing in regard 

 to the area off Virginia Beach, and Mr. Casey as to the area off Gal- 

 veston where he said some of the, finest fishing he had ever had was 

 in the exact spot. 



I understand from the testimony yesterday that there Avere two pre- 

 use surveys under study at the present time up in New England. 

 Upon inquiry, I find one is at a place called Browns Ledge where the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, I believe, is participating with AEC. 1 

 assume you are involved in it, too, are you not? 



Mr. McHuGH. Yes, we are, Mr. Drewry. 



Mr. Drewry. Has that survey proceeded to a point where you could 

 discuss any results? 



Mr. McIIuoii. No, sir. There was a meeting not more than 10 

 days ago up at Woods Hole at which some of our people were present. 



