1 crab, red crab, white hake, ocean pout, conger eel, cusk, and tilefish. 



2 Again, you'll see this clearly in the video. 



3 Exploratory drilling had no measurable impact on faunal habitats, 



4 species abundance, or community structure in Lydonia, Oceanographer, and 



5 Veatch Canyons. This was to be expected from our point of view when we 



6 began this study. 



7 Likewise sediment and body burdens of heavy metals, PAH's and 



8 PCB's were unchanged from 1980 through 1984. This 5-year database is 



9 considered a good benchmark against future drilling operations in this 



10 general area of the Northwest Atlantic. 



11 Likely candidates for key indicator species status in terms of 



12 long-term monitoring to reflect impact from drilling operations have 



13 been identified. The criteria used for indicator species designation 



14 can be discussed later and occurs in several of our publications. 



15 These species are the rock anemone, two species of those, actinavi 



16 and telia [phonetic], the jonah crab, four-spot flounder, squirrel hake, 



17 white hake, tilefish, black-bellied rosefish, conger eel, and ocean 



18 pout. Most of those species have some degree of commercial importance. 



19 Now, time wise, I started 5 minutes late, do I get that on the 



20 other end here? 



21 I would strongly suggest that those of you in the back of the room 



22 move up here forward, you'll be able to see this much better. 



23 I'm going to turn the volume up and let the scientists tell you 



24 what they see and I'll interject from time to time. 



25 (Video tape presentation.) 



26 This is about a 15-pound lobster at about 700 or 800 feet under a 



27 silt outcrop, pueblo-village type community 4. Rock anemones, ocean 



28 pout, another extensive pueblo-village community. 



29 These are important nursery grounds. From the submersible you can 



30 actually position yourself where you can look into these biologically 



31 created tunnels and grottos here and you can see the small juveniles in 



32 the inner recesses of these hiding places. 



33 The cusk and ocean pout here. The ocean pout, is probably in 



34 biomass the most abundant of the canyon head fauna. These are areas 



13 



