1 all, but through a series of negotiations, we finally compromised on 



2 drilling a well and doing a study. 



3 They advised USGS that we really needed the study, so we did the 



4 study. It was sort of a negotiated thing. We were sort of interested 



5 in doing the minimum and they were going to do the maximum and this is 



6 what we came out with. 



7 Partly because we had just finished doing the Mid-Atlantic Study, 



8 which was the million dollar study that I'm sure most of you know about, 



9 and we knew a lot more about the impacts of the discharges probably than 



10 some of the people who we were dealing with and were a lot more 



11 comfortable with them. 



12 Anyway, this is what we did. We had a predrilling survey. We 



13 directed the project at Exxon Production Research Company. It was a 



14 bathymetric survey. We took metals and sediment, drain size analysis, 



15 clay fraction analysis. 



16 On the predrilling survey, we took biological samples and these 



17 were washed, preserved, and stored, so they were to be analyzed in the 



18 event that we drilled another well in the vicinity. We didn't, so they 



19 were never analyzed. 



20 As a matter of fact, I think we gave them to Stony Brook or 



21 something. I can't remember; we did give those samples away, though. 



22 The predrilling survey took place September 1980, for 3 days. The 



23 rest of the program consisted of the drilling phase surveys and a 



24 monitoring of the discharges themselves. We monitored the quantity and 



25 composition of the mud discharges, currents. We used sediment traps as 



26 well as sediment samples. We analyzed the top 3 centimeters of 



27 sediment. 



28 We did not analyze the fine fraction, as we did not think about 



29 it, as you did in Georges Bank, which, of course, is a much more 



30 sensitive indicator of sediment samples. We took the top 3 centimeters. 



31 There were four cruises. The current meters and sediment traps 



32 were installed here in November right before the--excuse me, right after 



33 the rig was on location. This is how long the Alaskan Star was on Block 



158 



