1 DR. COOPER: The answer to that would have to be no, they don't 



2 have to, because as extensive as this on-shore/off-shore migration is, 



3 so also is the along-the-outer-edge-of-the-shelf migration. 



4 You get migrations in the course of a year or two of 100s of miles 



5 from Hudson Canyon up to Veach and Corsair down to Atlantis. 



6 DR. TEAL: It isn't likely that a lobster that size is going to be 



7 able to wander around very much. 



8 DR. COOPER: No, these lobsters don't begin their migratory 



9 behavior until they are about 65 or 70 millimeters. 



10 DR. NEFF: In the case of the blue crab, that's when they do 



11 migrate. 



12 DR. COOPER: Yes. The lobster population would no longer be, if 



13 they were out in the open at their small size. 



14 DR. BUTMAN: I also wondered when you say both higher biomass and 



15 higher concentrations of commercial species, I wonder what that means in 

 15 terms of the whole picture, because canyons are a small area. 



17 If you took the low concentrations of the slope area times the 



18 slope area and high concentrations of the canyons times the small canyon 



19 areas, do you have roughly equal biomasses or does the canyon still 



20 have, in terms of the total biomass along the Georges Bank continental 



21 slope, of the total biomass, what percentage is the canyons? 



22 You may not have the data to address that, but I have always 



23 wondered. 



24 DR. HECKER: I would say that you still have--I mean, the slope 



25 accounts for probably the majority of the biomass, but I am talking on a 



26 per unit area. 



27 DR. BUTMAN: In all species? 



28 DR. HECKER: No, not all species. 



29 DR. TEAL: l^hat about commercial species? You said that canyon 



30 heads were an important nursery area. Now, is the slope also a nursery 



31 area for white hake? 



32 DR. COOPER: No. 



33 DR. TEAL: Not at all? 



34 DR. COOPER: No. That also is true for the lobsters. 



224 



