1 So there was a little accumulation of metals and very minimal 



2 accumulation of hydrocarbons around the platforms. Looking at the 



3 biology, and I'm trying to summarize 3 years, 12 cruises of data in a 



4 slide or two, this is station 5-1, which is approximately 200 meters 



5 downcurrent from the rig in block 312. 



6 Looking first at the diversity, again, here is period of drilling 



7 right here in the middle and then we followed for several years 



8 afterwards. The diversity, they are seasonal trends but no obvious 



9 impact of drilling here. 



10 In terms of average number of individuals, it would appear that 



11 the number actually increased during the drilling operation and then 



12 settled at a higher level for the remainder of the period when we 



13 monitored. 



14 This may be an artifact that we had lower abundances than normal 



15 just before drilling and then they went back to the normal range during 



16 the drilling and immediately afterwards. 



17 Then the number of species, the same kind of trend, it actually 



18 increased during drilling and then settled sort of a gradual increasing 



19 trend over the next several years. 



20 So, basically at this site-specific array or at the station 



21 closest to the shallowest platform we monitored, there were, for all 



22 intents and purposes, no real biological impacts that we could attribute 



23 to drilling discharges. 



24 Looking farther offshore in block 410, here drilling started just 



25 after our first cruise. It would appear that the diversity did a nose 



26 dive during drilling and perhaps there was some decrease in the number 



27 of species. Then if you look beyond this, there are seasonal trends 



28 that sort of obscure any change here that could have possibly been due 



29 to drilling activities. 



30 For all intents and purposes, at this depth of over 100 meters, 



31 you don't see much of anything. The total average number of individuals 



32 remained essentially constant the whole time, the gradual rising trend, 



33 again, more typical of the lack of seasonal variation in offshore 



34 communities. 



98 



