496 



Mr. D' Amours. As is my practice, I seem to always begin ques- 

 tioning the witness who last testified. You have that honor today. 



A couple of things. In picking up on your very last statement, 

 you said you do your own resource estimate studies rather than re- 

 lying on Interior. 



Mr. Ayers. We invest hundreds of millions of dollars — you are 

 going to do a little work yourself. 



Mr. D' Amours. I appreciate that. As I understand it, isn't the In- 

 terior Department supposed to have access to proprietary informa- 

 tion that you have in order to enhance their own ability to make 

 judgments? 



Mr. Ayers. They have access to cost well data; they have access 

 to some of the other data we have. Everybody doesn t interpret it 

 all the same way. 



Mr. D'Amours. Do you have data that they don't have access to, 

 because of proprietary reasons? 



Mr. Ayers. I really had better not address that, because I just 

 flat don't know. We may or may not. I am not sure. 



Mr. D'Amours. I wonder if Mr. Danenberger is still here. I asked 

 him once before and he was. I am told he just left 



Mr. Ayers. Even if we all had the same information, we would 

 still come to different conclusions. 



Mr. D'Amours. You made another statement which I don't recall 

 seeing in your written testimony, which I read recently. You said 

 that there was no evidence of any impacts to fisheries in the 

 gulf 



Mr. Ayers. From drilling discharges. 



Mr. D'Amours. From drilling discharges or other oil production 

 activities. 



Mr. Ayers. I didn't say that. I said drilling discharges. 



Mr. D'Amours. Do you have evidence of impacts from their oil 

 activities? 



Mr. Ayers. There are some impacts I think that come from 

 dredging activities in coastal Louisiana. 



Mr. D'Amours. I am talking about oil production. 



Mr. Ayers. Dredging activities associated with all the coastal ac- 

 tivities, some of which are oil and gas. I know of no fisheries 

 impact. I have seen none that had anything to do with discharges 

 of oil and gas operations. 



Mr. D'Amours. Given the fact that there were no baseline stud- 

 ies conducted in the gulf, and given the fact, as Mr. Foy and Mr. 

 Costakes just testified, that there has been a shift from predomi- 

 nantly food fish to predominantly nonfood fish in the gulf, do you 

 think maybe we might be able to conclude there has been some- 

 thing which occurred there? 



Mr. Ayers. I am getting out of my area again. The menhaden 

 catch has gone up a lot. This is the kind of fish they were talking 

 about. I think that may be a matter of demand rather than any- 

 thing else. I think it would be more appropriate to look at the gulf 

 coast fish of interest like shrimp and oysters and see how they 

 have changed. My understanding is they have not. 



Mr. D'Amours. You are not suggesting that the gulf fishermen 

 would fish for the least remunerative species, are you, for any 

 reason? 



