1 I think the public, informed public, the managers and the people 



2 who have to make decisions, and the general public are now beginning to 



3 come to the realization that there may be some very significant 



4 questions that you raised regarding the conduct of the commercial and 



5 recreational fishery that have not been paid that much attention to. 



6 I think it's more--the timing is different. People have been on 



7 the petroleum industry for perhaps a lot longer than they've ben on the 



8 fishing industry. I think there are some similar questions that are now 



9 being asked regarding the conduct of the fishery that are similar to 



10 what people have been asking about the oil and gas industry. 



11 DR. RAY: I think it would be great to take some of the money that 



12 we've spent in the last 10 years trying to find impacts from oil and gas 



13 operations and spend some of that money in trying to better understand 



14 the impact on our fisheries, and more importantly, to use some of that 



15 money to improve our fishing techniques and to improve the catch and 



16 minimize the damage. 



17 MR. VILD: Jim, may I ask you a question? 



18 DR. RAY: Sure. 



19 MR. VILD: Why are the oil companies interested in the submarine 



20 canyons? Why won't you just leave well enough alone? 



21 DR. RAY: Neither way--rm not here [sentence not clear]. 



22 MR. VILD: I'm stirring the pot in the other direction. 



23 DR. RAY: No problem. First of all, I don't even know what the 



24 level of interest for the submarine canyon area is anyway by the 



25 companies, more or less on the East coast. 



26 As you are aware, the general level of interest for the East coast 



27 is fairly low as far as the industry in general is concerned. I can't 



28 speak for all companies, but generally the impression I get from 



29 everybody is very low. 



30 I have no idea as to what interest people may have near the 



31 canyons. I think as you get close to sensitive biological habitats, 



32 especially where you may have physical impacts, whether it be a canyon 



33 head, a coral reef or otherwise, I think there's very logical places 



34 where restrictions can be justified. 



142 



