422 



them, and consequently, although it would be nice to find out what 

 is happening in the water column, we would have more meaningful 

 results if we concentrated on the benthic infauna. 



If we were to do a complete research job, we would have looked 

 into the water column, although I frankly don't think that was 

 necessary. 



Mr. D' Amours. All right. What you are telling me is that the pri- 

 mary constraint is financial? 



Mr. Beller. I would say that was one of the major constraints, 

 yes, sir. 



Mr. D' Amours. All right. 



In your testimony you also imply rather strongly that monitor- 

 ing in the lease 52 area is going to be very expensive, precisely be- 

 cause of the sample-gathering problems in deep water. 



Do you anticipate having sufficient funds to do the necessary 

 monitoring and sample-gathering in the lease sale 52 area, and if 

 you do, what timetable are you looking at for achieving some desig- 

 nation and/or design in the sale 52 study area? 



Mr. Beller. To answer the first part, all I can say is we would 

 hope we would have sufficient funds, because, of course, it is the 

 Department of the Interior that has been funding the program to 

 date, and the Department of the Interior, with the first recom- 

 mended program, funded it totally adequately and, in fact, added 

 five stations to those we recommended. It has been an extremely 

 good relationship. 



True, to do equivalent research in deeper water, as you say, Mr. 

 Chairman, would be more expensive than to do the same research 

 in the shallower waters of Georges Bank. However, it could be that 

 we could do less research, require less stations in deeper waters, 

 and consequently the amount of money needed could be the same. 



How much money we would need, what experiments we would 

 need to do, we are looking toward our subcommittee to advise the 

 Biological Task Force on. That goes into your second question as to 

 when we could conceivably get results from the work of the sub- 

 committee. As I mentioned earlier, they will be meeting tomorrow 

 for their first meeting to try to map out a monitoring program. 



I would expect that at the latest, by the end of the current year, 

 we would have a monitoring program ready for adoption and fi- 

 nancing by the Department of the Interior. That is a guess, but 

 that would be my suggestion.. 



Mr. D' Amours. All right. Thank you. 



Just one short followup to that. 



If you do economize by setting out information stations, doesn't 

 that impact on the quality of your work? 



Mr. Beller. Not necessarily, because it may be fewer stations ap- 

 propriately placed could give us the same quality. 



Mr. D'Amours. That is iffy at this point, obviously. 



Mr. Beller. Yes, the whole problem is. 



Mr. D'Amours. Then you become very relevant, Mr. Danen- 

 berger, to the whole process. Can you give the subcommittee and 

 the full committee some assurances that in fact the Department of 

 the Interior will fully fund all reasonable study and monitoring at- 

 tempts in the deepwater area and continue full funding in the 

 lease sale 42 area? 



