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of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on the Georges Bank Bio- 

 logical Task Force and its activities. 



The Georges Bank BTF was established through an agreement 

 between the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Administration, NO A A, in order to resolve a dis- 

 pute over the designation of Georges Bank as a marine sanctuary. 

 Despite its beginnings, a review of the charter shows that the BTF 

 is not meant to be a political body, but rather an interagency com- 

 mittee which provides advice of a technical and scientific nature to 

 the regional supervisor of the Minerals Management Service, 

 MMS. 



The task force performed its role in exemplary fashion in the de- 

 velopment and implementation of the Georges Bank monitoring 

 program for the sale 42 area. It is not often that Federal agencies 

 from different departments work together, as they have on the 

 monitoring program, and involve scientists from outside Govern- 

 ment in the design of a major program for a specific area. The De- 

 partment of the Interior committed itself to funding the program, 

 which is about to begin its third year. 



In the development of the program, scientists discussed recent or 

 ongoing research programs, some of which are designed to gain a 

 better understanding of the high productivity of the Georges Bank 

 ecosystem and the mechanisms that contribute to its productivity, 

 and some of which care designed to monitor the environmental 

 health of the ecosystem. The objectives of the monitoring program 

 were based on these discussions and the specific concerns over the 

 potential impact of drilling activities on Georges Bank. 



The monitoring program is an important effort, since it is par- 

 ticularly critical to determine in a frontier region whether there 

 are significant impacts from drilling activity. However, post-lease 

 monitoring studies are not adequate by themselves as a means of 

 collecting scientific data in most OCS areas. Prelease scientific 

 studies are necessary, not only for developing complete and useful 

 environmental impact statements, but for assessing the capability 

 of existing drilling technologies, for developing stringent lease stip- 

 ulations tailored to the environmental conditions of an area, and 

 for determining whether there are portions of a proposed sale area 

 that may deserve special attention. 



Although there has been no drilling activity on the bank for 

 almost 1 year, lease sale 82 is scheduled for February 1984. Sale 52, 

 originally scheduled for 1982, is held up in court. The task force 

 must now prepare for additional leasing, encompassing a larger 

 area of the North Atlantic. 



This next lease sale will include the continental slope and rise 

 areas adjacent to Georges Bank, where the physical, chemical and 

 biological processes are not well understood. As a part of its on- 

 going environmental studies program, the Department of the Inte- 

 rior is supporting research efforts that will add to our knowledge of 

 these deep water areas. Prelease studies such as these are neces- 

 sary in order to make reasonable decisions on areas to be leased, 

 and whether specific restrictions should be placed on drilling activi- 

 ties in certain areas. 



The BTF has the ability, because of its composition, to integrate 

 information from the monitoring program with other North Atlan- 



