1 DR. HECKER: I guess the other question in here which, as is 



2 stated down there, is also: Are your commercial species like lobster 



3 and that more sensitive in the juvenile stages, since we call these 



4 areas nurseries? 



5 DR. COOPER: Sensitive to--? 



6 DR. HECKER: To anything? To anything that might happen with 



7 regard to them? 



8 DR. COOPER: Anything that is going to force them out of their 



9 nursery shelters at a young age where they probably would be very 



10 quickly subjected to much higher rates of predation. 



11 DR. NEFF: Certainly, the embryo-larval stages are more sensitive 



12 to chemical toxicity or whatever; the early juvenile stages in the cases 



13 of lobster are more sensitive to physical alteration of their 



14 environment. There is lots of documentation of that. If you change the 



15 substrate, they have more trouble digging their little burrows and 



16 things like that. 



17 By the time the lobster gets to the juvenile, he is as tough as an 



18 adult as far as the chemical -- 



19 DR. COOPER: One thing that is very true of lobsters and it never 



20 ceases to amaze me here in the 30 years I've been studying this, larval 



21 lobsters, at the time of settling at the bottom as little miniaturized 



22 adults, stage IV, stage V, will thrive in the most filthy, polluted 



23 water you could possibly imagine--New York Harbor. 



24 The lobster, in addition to being very cosmopolitan in terms of 



25 distribution of habitat, are very resilient to stressful situations. 



26 DR. HECKER: Any information on the hake with regard to that or 



27 the tile fish? 



28 DR. COOPER: I don't really know. 



29 DR. NEFF: It is generally true of fish that once they pass into 



30 juveniles, they are fairly tough. Then you get into reproduction and so 



31 on. 



32 DR. COOPER: One thing about tile fish, they apparently have the 



33 behavior when stressed, they dive into these grottoes and just hold on 



34 for dear life waiting for this unpleasant environment to pass. There 



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