1 pattern of current intensities in the canyon and I feel the resuspension 



2 events. 



3 Mike, that's where my question was coming up with the regard to 



4 the resuspension events. One of my feelings is that in order to support 



5 a lot of filter feeders, not only do you need high current intensities 



6 to bring particles past, but you need a constant influx of particles 



7 into the water column in that area to support these types of 



8 populations. 



9 In terms of, if you want to look at possible impacts, the thing 



10 there is just that filter feeders would be liable to a fair amount of 



11 stress that would increase the sediment load in the water column. That 



12 would be tissue abrasion, clogging of filtering apparatuses, but also 



13 because they're sessile, possibly decreased settling success. 



14 That would only mean in terms of if you increase a lot suspension 



15 in the water column, but also then you've got to raise the question of 



16 if, in fact, we are concentrating things in the access of canyons, these 



17 filter feeders may well be the base of this food chain. 



18 DR. BOTHNER: Barbara, can I ask you one technical question? Your 



19 sled, I wonder if that is driven blind or does it have a TV camera that 



20 let's you view what the sled is seeing on the ship? 



21 DR. HECKER: It's driven blind. It takes a photograph every 15 



22 seconds. The one thing that I found with videos is you cannot get 



23 independent results if you've got any feedback going through what you're 



24 looking at because you're taking more pictures--I see this from 



25 submersible dives--you're going to be taking more pictures of the 



26 interesting areas. 



27 If nothing is there, that is data also. So, it's absolutely blind 



28 and it's every 15 seconds. 



29 DR. VALENTINE: Our next speaker is Dr. Nancy Maciolek formerly of 



30 Battelle Ocean Sciences. She is going to speak on "Benthic Infauna of 



31 Lydonia Canyon and the Adjacent Slope Environment," and also give us 



32 some information on Fred Grassle's work. 

 33 



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