1 So, the idea here is to generate and then document through the 



2 proceedings open discussions about whatever conclusions you may have 



3 concerning our proposed hypotheses, based on Environmental Studies 



4 Program data or any other information that you may want to bear on the 



5 program. 



6 This is really an expansion of the purpose of the Environmental 



7 Studies Program. As stated in the OCS Lands Act, "it is to establish 



8 information needed for the prediction, assessment, and management of 



9 impacts on the human, marine, and coastal environments." 



10 That has meant that we have usually designed mostly field or 



11 literature studies to do these four things. There is no real reason 



12 that we can see why we have to continue to focus on field studies or 



13 even synthesis reports. 



14 In fact, there is a fairly, to me at least, pervasive argument for 



15 us doing more in terms of risk perception and communication than there 



16 is is in doing field biology at this point of the program. So, that's 



17 what this is all about. 



18 There is a growing trend in the Studies Program towards this kind 



19 of effort. There has been a workshop in Washington and Oregon to 



20 identify studies needs. That situation is, of course, different than 



21 the North Atlantic because there hasn't been as much done up there. 



22 There is a growing trend towards synthesis reports, and in open- 



23 forum discussions. So, what we hope to accomplish is a more thorough 



24 utilization and evaluation of the available data by bringing together 



25 the scientists who are involved in it, establishment of consensus, where 



26 possible, if any consensus can be achieved between the participants in 



27 this case, the States and the federal government on technical issues, 



28 not necessarily managerial ones, and identification of technical issues 



29 which could be resolved through scientific investigations and 



30 determination of what would be an appropriate approach to take. 



31 This whole workshop contains elements of at least four different 



32 activities that we can identify. The first is sort of an informal risk 



33 analysis because we will be talking about perceptions of risk associated 



