1 DR. COOPER: Who is to say whether the red crab, if you did away 



2 with your lobster population from 500 feet down to 1,200 feet, would the 



3 red crabs move down into that area? I have no idea. My suspicion is 



4 that they would. They are probably out there because they are out- 



5 competed by the much more aggressive lobster. 



6 The lobster is not going down into the deeper range because of the 



7 temperature regime. They have a wery strongly preferred temperature 



8 regime of about 9 to about 11 1/2 degrees. 



9 DR. VALENTINE: But on the slope, you see, the red crabs don't go 



10 up to shallower depths on the slope where there are no lobsters. I 



11 mean, they are limited to-- 



12 DR. HECKER: Where there are fewer lobsters, I think the red crab 



13 may be competing with the jonah crab. 



14 DR. COOPER: The lobster is a very cosmopolitan species. It 



15 occurs. You name a habitat and you will find lobsters there, almost. 



16 The lobster population extends all the way from at least Corsair Canyon 



17 down to almost Cape Hatteras outer shelf, upper slope environments. 



18 DR. AURAND: So this paragraph is tough to write. 



19 DR. HECKER: It is just you can put so many qualifiers in, but you 



20 can qualify any sentence into meaning nothing, then. I think we can 



21 make some statements and then you can always say that for these 



22 commercial fisheries, however, at least 1 out of eyery 999 tile fish is 



23 caught on the slope. 



24 DR. COOPER: We can come up with as best anybody can come with 



25 today, a paragraph on that. I've got one paragraph already structured 



26 here for the special nature of submarine canyons. 



27 DR. HECKER: Your next assignment, Dick. 



28 DR. BRODY: I would like to ask one other question about the 



29 lobsters and nurseries. Do you think if lobsters were not fished in the 



30 canyons, the populations would go up elsewhere? 



31 DR. COOPER: I think so. The canyons are very intensively fished. 



32 They have been for the last approximately 20 years plus. 



33 DR. HECKER: No, not all species. 



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