1 This no-drilling stipulation was established for three principal 



2 reasons. One was to protect the unique biological habitats of the 



3 canyons. 



4 I think that today we've heard Dick Cooper, Barbara Hecker, and 



5 Nancy Maciolek discuss the biological aspects of the canyons. I think 



6 Dick and Barbara's videos and the pictures have really vividly shown the 



7 unusual habitat types and the species that occupy the canyons. 



8 Dick indicated in the very beginning of his talk that the canyons 



9 had a very unique habitat and indicated that the canyons were important 



10 nursery areas for a number of species. 



11 Brad described the submarine canyons as complex environments, and 



12 I think that Brad, Page Valentine, and Mike Bothner really further 



13 defined some of those sediment transport mechanisms that are work, at 



14 least in Lydonia and Oceanographer and some of the likely sources of 



15 material. 



16 They indicated that while the energies in the various canyons 



17 studied do vary, pollutants, at least indicated by Mike's work on 



18 Plutonium and lead-210, may actually be trapped within the canyons and 



19 they slosh around in there. There is some question as to how much of 



20 the material moves out and also what the time might be--residence time 



21 might be of some of this material. 



22 Brad did point out in response to a question that was asked that 



23 we still don't know what the rates of accumulation of this fine-grained 



24 material may be. That's obviously important to trying to predict what 



25 some of the potential impacts of pollutants might be in the biological 



26 communities. 



27 The second reason that the no-drilling stipulation was put in 



28 effect in 1984 was the protection of important biological resources. 



29 Again, I think Dick and Barbara have described them pretty well. 



30 We saw pictures of lobsters, tilefish, jonah and red crabs, and I 



31 think it's fair to say that within this context the important biological 



32 resources have been pretty much defined by those that have been or are 



33 being exploited commercially. 



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