1 will take some time for the National Research Council to sort through 



2 the information and reach some kind of conclusion. 



3 We thought we would take the approach of focusing on a narrower 



4 subset of environmental issues where a good deal of information has been 



5 collected, so we though we'd start with submarine canyons. 



6 As Don has mentioned, this is an experiment of sorts. We hope 



7 that it will be--we are very optimistic that it will work out. 



8 We have basicaTly four factions here. State government 



9 representatives, oil industry representatives, representatives from the 



10 scientific community, and people that are generally interested in 



11 resource management issues and conflict resolution between development 



12 on the one hand, and environmental conservation on the other. 



13 We thought that, if nothing else, [this workshop] would stimulate 



14 debate and dialogue. I don't think we'll be disappointed in that. 



15 What we are hoping to do, though, is to reach a conclusion. We 



16 are encouraging some consensus. There are mechanisms to deal with areas 



17 where consensus is not achievable, such as minority reports. We are 



18 hoping those mechanisms won't be necessary. 



19 I think I'd also like to conclude just by mentioning one other 



20 thing. We are coming to this with as few biases as possible. We are 



21 trying to maintain an open and objective approach to this meeting. 



22 Basically we are hoping to let the membership of the panels draw 



23 their own conclusions without any undue pressure or bias from us. 



24 That's really all I had to say. Thank you again from coming. If 



25 you have any questions for either Don or myself, any questions about the 



26 approach of the meeting, why we are doing this, please feel free to 



27 raise them now, otherwise, we'll get on with the show. 



28 DR. AURAND: I did manage to forget perhaps the most important 



29 logistic item that was given to me. If you smoke, you have to smoke in 



30 the lobby, not in the room. I don't want the contractors mad at me for 



31 forgetting to say that, so there it is. 



32 Anybody have any questions, if not, we'll go ahead. I think it's 



33 a pretty straight forward process. 



8 



