1 these results imply is that there was some minimal accumulation of 



2 barium from sediments, but virtually no food-chain transfer of barium. 



3 We did the same study with winter flounder. Both lobster and 



4 winter flounder are major commercial species on Georges Bank, and 



5 basically got the same results. In this case, there were two groups, 



6 again the group fed contaminated food and living on contaminated 



7 sediments had the highest concentration of barium in their tissues. 



8 The differences in these two groups are fairly small, but they 



9 were statistically significant. Again, the contaminated sediment is a 



10 main route of uptake. It is very minimal uptake, no accumulation of 



11 chromium. 



12 So, basically these two studies showed that there was minimal 



13 availability of these metals associated with sediments. We did 



14 physiological studies on these and were able to show actually that the 



15 flounder on the contaminated sediments and fed contaminated worms 



16 actually grew faster than the others, they were heavier, maybe it's all 



17 that barium in their diet. 



18 They were heavier at the end of the experiment than the other 



19 group. There were minimal indications of stress in these animals. The 



20 lobsters were slightly more stressed by the drilling mud contaminated 



21 sediments. 



22 So, the conclusion is winter flounder and lobsters were able to 



23 accumulate small amounts of barium but not chromium from the sediments. 



24 Neither species accumulated significant amounts of barium and chromium 



25 from food. 



26 The lobsters but not flounder were mildly stressed by exposure for 



27 basically 100 days to sediments heavily contaminated with drilling muds. 



28 That's the lab studies, now into the field. They had a lot of 



29 wells drilled out there and not surprising there have been a lot of 



30 field studies of the impacts of drilling operations mostly on the 



31 benthos because of this appearance or the perception and conclusion that 



32 the water column impacts would be impossible to demonstrate. 



33 These studies have been performed in the Gulf of Mexico, 



34 California, on the east coast, in the North Sea, a large number of 



95 



