1 platform, everything was virtually wiped out because you've got a big 



2 pile of stuff. 



3 The abundance of individuals and the diversity and so forth began 



4 showing changes almost--they did two cruises, one immediately before and 



5 immediately after drilling and one a year later. 



6 Unfortunately, the big problem with that study is that they 



7 compared those results with a benchmark station nearby that was done 



8 several years earlier. It looks like the benchmark data were anomalous. 



9 So, you are comparing with something that really isn't comparable. 



10 It wasn't a good control, so it's hard to say whether the immediately 



11 after drilling impacts that were observed, except those where everything 



12 was wiped out on the bottom, how big they were and what the normal 



13 population size was at that location. 



14 So, that's a big problem. In the North Sea, most of the studies 



15 were in 50 to 100 meters of water, and there has been a lot longer 



16 follow-on on that, for several years in some cases. 



17 DR. NEFF: Right. 



18 DR. RAY: The two studies this morning I talked about, Nancy, two 



19 of those had biological studies associated with them, too. 



20 In the preliminary information, one was in 73 meters of water and 



21 in that particular location the main effect that you can see is within 



22 about 75 meters of the platform, but the changes in the community seemed 



23 to be related to the changes in the bottom substrate directly beneath 



24 the platform, a combination of debris from the platform, i.e., manmade 



25 and some of the larger hard filing [words unclear] organisms associated 



26 with the platform, seemed to have changed the community composition 



27 directly beneath the platform slightly. 



28 Out beyond about 75 meters, using the variety of abundance and 



29 diversity indices, there does not seem to be any correlation between 



30 that and any metal levels in the sediments and hydrocarbons. 



31 In Alabama, in that study in 35 feet of water, there doesn't seem 



32 to be any association in the changes in community type associated with 



33 the contaminants that we're measuring in the sediments. 



103 



