1 m^ of the sea floor were analyzed. This means that we counted that many 



2 . animals and probably the animals you're talking about may be about 



3 750,000 animals that this data set is based on. That's a lot. 



4 Some people say, "Hey, they pay her to look at those beautiful 



5 pictures of the sea floor?" Yes, they do. It's just as bad as looking 



6 through a microscope, especially after 8 hours of sitting in the dark. 



7 The slides were projected and systematically analyzed, first depth 



8 was noted, then surficial geology was noted, any comments we had about 



9 current indications, current scour was noted. Any faunal associations 



10 in terms of, "Hey, this hanging around the base of this," were also 



11 noted and then all species were identified and counted for abundances. 



12 This was done systematically for the photographs. The photographs 



13 were analyzed over a series of passes. Basically the first viewers go 



14 through and do the analysis of the photographs and then they write 



15 questions for me and I go through and recheck it. 



16 Then, at the end, I go through every single shot and make certain 



17 that the area estimate has been done, because one of the problems with 



18 this is the canyon topography is very, very rough, so a lot of times you 



19 have to estimate as to how many meters you're looking at. 



20 We do that based on where the horizon is in the photograph, and in 



21 terms of the fauna. We know basically the size of the fauna, so we 



22 frequently will have to estimate. It's only when you're on an 



23 absolutely flat surface that you don't have that problem. 



24 I've color coded this slightly. The blue was the submersible 



25 coverage here using the Alvi'n. You can see most of that was done in the 



26 vicinity of the axis. 



27 One of the reasons is Lydonia Canyon, in comparison say to 



28 Oceanographer Canyon, the axis is rather narrow, it's quite sinuous, and 



29 it is flanked along most of its extent by cliffs along the base of the 



30 wall, hence the camera slide doesn't always do such a great job in 



31 taking pictures. 



32 We get some spectacular shots going up the cliffs. If you notice, 



33 several of the camera tows go right along the axis. This is just so 



34 that we could get good axial coverage. We had several tows going right 



106 



