1 DR. COOPER: That was strictly an example of the kind of thing 



2 that--qual ity of product. The obvious thing is to try to measure a drop 



3 in catch. There are many other things that relate to that where you 



4 would never, in 100 years, show any cause-effect relationship unless it 



5 was a massive drop-off. 



6 DR. VALENTINE: There are two points here. One is defining what 



7 we think is an impact. The second thing is: How much of it can we 



8 accept? I don't thin-k we ought to mix the two. 



9 DR. NEFF: I think we ought to first go out and see if we can 



10 detect a biological change that is clearly attributable to the activity, 



11 usually through the chemistry link. Then the next step is a judgment. 



12 What level of change of that kind is acceptable or unacceptable? 



13 DR. COOPER: I gave some thought to this on my way coming up here 



14 the other day. To me, the only real, sure-fire way to demonstrate any 



15 impact, regardless of how you want to measure it, is to set up one or 



16 several site specific stations prior to a production platform going into 



17 effect on a small scale; it doesn't have to be a big program to do it. 



18 Do it in situ with this high tech diving technique we have, so 



19 you're going down and monitoring one given rock pile, several site- 



20 specific pueblo village communities where you can monitor individuals 



21 and populations in those specific environments. 



22 DR. AURAND: We are doing that on the west coast. The drawbacks 



23 are, of course, in the soft bottom areas, you can't, but we are doing 



24 that in the hard bottom areas. Unless you get into a solution where 



25 that would be allowed so that you can actually monitor it, then you are 



26 kind of caught in a Catch-22, you know. 



27 That's the information you actually want, but you only get the 



28 information once you actually drill. 



29 DR. NEFF: You don't cause an impact until it's done. 



30 DR. AURAND: I think reasonably, what you have to do today, you 



31 probably have to leave it, for now, with words like "a measurable 



32 response" and wait until you talk about what the mechanisms and the 



33 possible consequences are before you try to define what you would use as 



34 an impact agent. 



248 



