135 



Mr. Wyatt. Have you found if there is any major damage, or any 

 damage, in the studies you have conducted thus far in the gulf? 



Dr. Bolton. The indication that we have from our field scientists 

 is that there is cause for concern. 



Mr. Wyatt. That is not my question. Have you determined that 

 there is damage being done, not cause for concern but is there 

 damage being done? 



Dr. Bolton. I think that you can say that even in the BLM rig 

 studies that have been done, there is damage being done as a result 

 of drilling operations in the immediate vicinity of the rig, yes, sir. 



Mr. Wyatt. And that damage is considered to be significant? 



Dr. Bolton. It is certainly significant within the limitations of 

 the rig radius, yes. 



Ms. Compton. Depending — I think the agency's position depends 

 on the area affected by the rig. In other words, there are many 

 areas in the Gulf of Mexico that are not of significant biological 

 concern where we would consider the damage not to be significant. 

 However, in the Flower Gardens we decided that the damage may 

 be significant, given its unique characteristics. 



Mr. Wyatt. Unique characteristics? 



Dr. Bolton. The northernmost hard coral bank. 



Mr. Wyatt. What damage is being done there? 



Dr. Bolton. To date? 



Mr. Wyatt. Yes. 



Ms. Compton. There is no drilling there now. 



Dr. Bolton. No, there has been drilling there. 



Any damage that may have been done has not been directly tied 

 with drilling effects, simply because the scientific community has 

 not known about the Flower Gardens for that long. Fishermen did. 

 Texas A. & M. I believe was credited with actually discovering the 

 unique nature of the Flower Garden Banks. I am not sure of the 

 date. 



Mr. Wyatt. And you have been looking at this, you have been 

 looking at Flower Gardens, and you have found no significant 

 damage, is that correct? 



Dr. Bolton. The Bureau of Land Management says there has 

 been no significant damage. 



Mr. Wyatt. What about EPA? 



Dr. Bolton. I do not know that EPA has the field studies that to 

 substantiate that cause and effect EPA has not been doing field 

 studies directly at the Flower Gardens. 



Mr, Wyatt. Are you familiar with any study that shows that 

 there is significant damage done by oil drilling? 



Dr. Bolton. There is a USGS coral coring study that indicates 

 that there has been a decrease in the growth of corals beginning 

 about 1957. But there is no way to really attribute that decrease 

 directly to drilling activities. There are certainly many other fac- 

 tors that could influence coral growth rate. 



Mr. Wyatt. Do you have any studies that show that you will 

 ultimately come to a conclusion of any kind? 



Dr. Bolton. There are completed EPA studies which indicate a 

 change in recruitment and larval settling as a result of fine layers 

 of drilling fluid on the substrat, so, yes 



Mr. Wyatt. On? 



