1 DR. TEAL: What it demonstrated was that if you really tried to 



2 . disturb the rock fish with a seismic rate, you can. 



3 DR. AURAND: Yes, it does demonstrate that, which is fine with 



4 some groups and not necessarily fine with us. We are left with the 



5 problem of what would happen in a realistic condition as opposed to a 



6 worst case analysis. 



7 In fact, the design of the study was based improperly, perhaps, on 



8 the assumption that we could not do that, that we could not disturb them 



9 significantly and, lo and behold, we were able to. 



10 DR. HECKER: Dick, do you think the tile fish would hide in their 



11 burrows if you've got drilling going on, if you've got vibration going 



12 through the sea floor? Do you think they would hide in their burrows or 



13 would they come out? 



14 DR. TEAL: I think, in general, the noise effects, my own personal 



15 feeling is any animal that can't get used to that degree of noise is 



16 going to go extinct, anyway. 



17 (Laughter) 



18 DR. TEAL: But the ordinary activities, it's-- 



19 DR. KRAEUTER: There are ships going through the area. If you 



20 postulate that, then you had better cut out shipping, because the 



21 shipping noise is tremendous from just the trawling and the general 



22 boats moving back and forth through the area. This is a constant noise, 



23 which is also the constant drumming, and things get used to that. 



24 MR. LANE: Certainly, geophysical profiling is a normal part of 



25 DCS exploration and development activities. Would it be fair to say 



26 that it is a concern as far as extensive use of geophysical profiling in 



27 an area, the possible noise disturbance to fish, or are we saying that 



28 it's not really important? 



29 DR. TEAL: I didn't say anything about geophysical seismic 



30 profiling. 



31 MS. HUGHES: Are you talking about noise from drilling? 



32 DR. TEAL: Ordinary drilling production activities. 



33 DR. BOTHNER: Has that been studied, the noise due to drilling? 



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