1 DR. COOPER: I think, quite clearly, this is a wide range of 



2 substrate or habitat and I am sure Barbara has mentioned several times, 



3 and I am sure she is right, but there are other reasons, as well. 



4 If you are looking at the submarine canyonhead environments, where 



5 your commercial species primarily occur, you could say it is partly a 



6 result of a temperature regime, but the primary factor here of the 



7 numbers of species and the much higher biomass of about 8 or 10 



8 different species that you saw on the videotape yesterday is heavily a 



9 function of these low relief three dimensional habitats that provide 



10 shelter or a compacted substrate that is conducive toward burrowing or 



11 excavation. 



12 DR. VALENTINE: One of the reasons I bring that up is that, if 



13 that is true, it is the diverse habitats that cause this phenomenon to 



14 happen, then there are some canyons--most probably some canyons--which 



15 are called canyons which really don't fall into this category, some of 



16 these shallow—what I think of as (inaudible) of the slope. 



17 I don't know if they have been set aside, things like Dog Body, 



18 Welker or some of these smaller canyons possibly don't meet the criteria 



19 that we have listed here, for biological diversity, biomass, 



20 heterogeneity, et cetera. They are really just (inaudible) of the 



21 slope. 



22 If that is true, then they are really not part of the argument 



23 here. If we are not going to exclude areas of the slope for drilling 



24 because of the reasons we are discussing here today, then some of these 



25 canyons might fall into that category. 



26 DR. HECKER: How would you characterize Heezen Canyon, Page? 



27 DR. VALENTINE: Well, I've never been in Heezen Canyon, so I 



28 really don't know. From what you said yesterday, it is more like the 



29 canyons we are talking about now. 



30 DR. HECKER: Deeper, because I only know the canyon deeper, but I 



31 think there is flushing going on. I had very well defined ripples at 



32 1,600 meters. 



33 DR. VALENTINE: But I'm talking about much smaller canyons. 



34 DR. HECKER: Than even Heezen? 



228 



