1 quantified the barium concentrations actually in the soluble fraction of 



2 the cellular material, where it may be having an impact. 



3 Part of the theory is that the barium +2 ion will compete with the 



4 calcium +2 ion and disrupt the metabolism in the cell, some of the 



5 metabolic processes. 



6 When they actually look at the concentration, from a conservative 



7 standpoint of the barium +2 that would be in that fraction of the 



8 cellular material, it's anywhere from one to--[word unclear] orders of 



9 magnitude lower than the calcium concentrations. 



10 So, hypothetically the authors of the work feel that at least form 



11 a barium standpoint it does not appear there's enough barium in those 



12 organisms that were tested to actually have a toxic effect on the 



13 organism. 



14 As to whether that hypothesis stands up, I don't know, and I'm not 



15 going to defend it. I'll let the authors defend it when they publish 



16 the rest of it. 



17 Anyway, that's why a lot of that detailed information, dealing 



18 with the cellular fractions, and where the metals go in the organism, 



19 was done, and it's trying to get a better answer. Whole-body burdens of 



20 metals have very limited value in really trying to predict what the 



21 impact is going to be on a particular species. 



22 You've got to go to finer detail to really start having an idea of 



23 whether or not the animal is going to be impacted. 



24 DR. BOTHNER: Jim, going back to your field measurements for a 



25 moment, some of which showed a decrease of barium with time after the 



26 drilling stopped, I'm wondering if you ever assessed the amount that may 



27 have been decreased because of dissolution of the barium in sea water, 



28 rather than transported away from the site? 



29 DR. RAY: No. We haven't done any of that type of work. That 



30 question has come up before and we've had a lot of discussions with Paul 



31 Booth at A&M, who has raised that as one of the possible mechanisms for 



32 the loss of measurable barium in the sediment. 



58 



