1 DR. TEAL: Okay. 



2 DR. BRODY: Are the canyon stock necessary to stock other areas? 



3 DR. COOPER: We believe very strongly that these submarine 



4 canyons, especially for lobsters, probably more so for lobsters than any 



5 other species, are very important nursery grounds. They are sort of 



6 home grounds for these lobsters to move laterally up and down the coast. 



7 DR. TEAL: You are saying, also, for white hake that if the 



8 canyons, suppose that somebody did away with all the canyons, they all 



9 filled up and then the white hake population would drop down to-- 



10 DR. COOPER: I would think you would have a big drop, a tremendous 



11 drop, in white hake, certainly in lobsters, the so-called lobster 



12 population; your tile fish population would virtually disappear if that 



13 scenario were to-- 



14 DR. TEAL: Yes, I mean, that's a way of saying that, in your 



15 opinion or backed up by whatever data you know about. 



16 DR. BUTMAN: Are there some commercial species which are only 



17 caught in canyons? 



18 DR. COOPER: Tile fish, 99 percent, I would say. 



19 DR. BUTMAN: The red crab fisheries and the lobster fisheries are 



20 all along the-- 



21 DR. COOPER: Lobsters and crabs are all along the outer shelf, 



22 upper slope. 



23 DR. BUTMAN: Is it bigger in the canyons? 



24 DR. COOPER: Bigger in the canyons for lobsters; certainly, of 



25 course, we are talking about a total area of these two physiographic 



26 regions that are very different. The red crab fishery is primarily a 



27 continental slope fishery, as I understand it. Lobsters are primarily a 



28 canyon fishery. 



29 These two species, the lobster we believe is the highly dominant 



30 of these two and occupies these prime habitats down to about 1,200 feet 



31 and, at about that depth is where the red crab population takes over. 



32 DR. VALENTINE: The red crab population might be limited more by 



33 temperature. I mean, they are a deeper water organism. The slope 



34 provides more of that area than the canyons do. 



225 



