1 DR. TEAL: We did studies on whales. Are gray whales seventeen 



2 kilometers away upset? The humpbacks stop singing. 



3 DR. HECKER: Wait a minute. Whales are attracted to noises. 



4 Whales are very much attracted to noises. 



5 DR. TEAL: These are some of the things that have been brought up; 



6 that's all I'm saying. 



7 MS. HUGHES: Well, Dick and Barbara, too, in your work on tile 



8 fish, is it mostly the lights that--of your activities in the canyons-- 



9 DR. COOPER 



10 MS. HUGHES 



11 DR. COOPER 



The 1 ights. 



Is it mostly the lights? 



Yes, most of these animals are living, say, 500 to 2 



12 or 3 thousand feet. They are living in a world, from our point of view, 



13 of virtual darkness. All of a sudden, this great big light flashing, 



14 vibration. 



15 DR. TEAL: Vibration is right up close, too. Part of their 



16 defense is to dive into their hole when a shark comes by. When 



17 something 10 times as big as a shark comes by, they'd be very stupid if 



18 they didn't dive into their hole. 



19 DR. HECKER: So, they are going to be sensitive to vibrations. 



20 How do they know a shark is going along if they can't see? 



21 DR. TEAL: I didn't say they couldn't see. I said that an Alvin 



22 coming along is like a hell of a big fish or at least a hell of a big 



23 disturbance coming through the water close by. 



24 DR. COOPER: We had a tile fish try to mate with us one time. 



25 Sometimes, it's attracted to lights. 



26 (Laughter) 



27 MR. LANE: Would it be fair to say that operational noise from 



28 platforms produces a short-term startle response on the part of some 



29 commercial fish species, tile fish? 



30 DR. RAY: Some of our remote camera work around some of our deep 



31 well heads in around 6,000 feet of water, even when they were dangling 



32 the drill bit right over the entry gear and banging around there and 



33 everything else, there were a lot of deep sea fish just floating around 



275 



