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Mr. Breaux. By whom? 

 Ms. CoMPTON. By staff. 



Mr. Breaux. Is that National Marine Fisheries staff or EPA 

 staff? 



Ms. COMPTON. EPA. 



Mr. Breaux. With their expertise in fisheries. 



Ms. COMPTON. No 



Dr. Bolton. I believe it is the NAS report which makes that 

 statement, National Academy of Sciences. 



Mr. Breaux. National Science Foundation, what does the state- 

 ment, I would like to make it part of the record. 



Dr. Bolton. The statement was also quoted in the earlier hear- 

 ing but it was to the effect that while you have approximately the 

 same catch that you had 10 years ago it is taking ten times the 

 effort. So the catch of fish has not decreased, however it is taking 

 more effort to achieve that same catch. 



Mr. Breaux. I would like you to supply that, since you refer to it. 



Dr. Bolton. Certainly. 



Mr. Breaux. Would you address what she was talking about on 

 the studies there. 



Dr. Bolton. Pardon? 



Mr. Breaux. She asked you to respond to the number of studies 

 that I said must be in existence somewhere. 



Dr. Bolton. Yes, there are a number of studies. I think one of 

 the greatest advantages of those studies is that they provided study 

 assessments which allow for the design of more effective and infor- 

 mative studies. The biggest problem is that an industry has been 

 trying to assess its effect upon the environment in what is essen- 

 tially a new area — well, at that time a new area of ecological 

 investigation. We have found a lot of pitfalls in these studies as 

 they are assessed. The point is because you have studies does not 

 necessarily mean the studies are the end-all and be-all of the 

 scientific expertise. They have a lot of room for improvements. 

 That is part of the reason why we analyze the results of these rig- 

 monitoring studies is to improve their design so we can get more 

 explicit answers on impact and environmental change. 



Mr. Breaux. I am all for studying. We can study the studies and 

 study those studies; do reports on the studies of the studies. At 

 some point we are going to have to make a decison whether to go 

 or not go. I do not think study ever indicates in actual truth and 

 veracity whether something is safe or harmful. Are you all familiar 

 with the Rice University studies entitled "Offshore Ecology Investi- 

 gation"? 



Dr. Bolton. Very familiar. 



Mr. Breaux. What is your thought about that? 



Dr. Bolton. I feel there are a lot of flaws in many of those 

 studies. The volume recently released has corrected many of the 

 flaws in the original final draft papers. However, the main problem 

 with that study, as I think you will note in the critique section of 

 that volume, is the study design. The critique may be about the 

 third or fourth chapter. The authors point out that there are no 

 sufficient control sites for those studies. It is very difficult to run a 

 scientific experiment without proper controls. 



