1 DR. TEAL: No, no, because this meeting could be about Flower 



2 Garden Reef in Texas, which is one lone spot on the coast. 



3 DR. HECKER: Brad, if we only have one canyon out there, I doubt 



4 if we'd even consider the concept of drilling anywhere near it. 



5 DR. BUTMAN: That's what I was saying. 



6 DR. HECKER: Yes. I want to just raise a couple of other little 



7 things. John Teal told me that I was going to object. 



8 Actually, the wery first question that I wanted to raise is: What 



9 is an impact? Let me play the devil's advocate. An impact is anything 



10 that changes the existing condition to something else, if you want to 



11 consider that an impact. Do you want to consider an impact anything 



12 that alters the environment deleteriously? Then you get into the value 



13 judgment of what is deleterious. 



14 DR. AYERS: I think it has to be measurable. 



15 DR. HECKER: I have always felt the critters respond to cues 



16 whether we can measure them or not. They are responding to their own 



17 cues. 



18 DR. TEAL: His question is still good. If you can't measure it, 



19 you say you can measure it in the response of the animal, and that is 



20 still a measure. 



21 DR. HECKER: Yes. Okay. What constitutes an impact? 



22 DR. NEFF: The key question is whether you consider an impact a 



23 chemical change or just a strict impact, a biological change? 



24 Historically, we have been able to use chemistry as our guide and say, 



25 "Okay, we've got a new chemical here. There is an impact." 



26 Basically, I am asking you to define what you mean by impact. If 



27 we could detect an increment in barium sediment of a 10 percent 



28 increase, is that an impact? 



29 DR. HECKER: Do we see a change in the animals and is that change 



30 in the animals significant from background noise? 



31 DR. NEFF: That is what I was going to ask you. 



32 MR. VILD: Aren't you really concerned with adversity here? An 



33 impact, if it is any change, it could be a change for the positive, like 



34 you said with your chemosynthetic organisms after an oil spill. For 



244 



