1 DR. COOPER: Let me just verbalize this first and see how it 



2 sounds, to me as well as you. Given the conditions of not drilling any 



3 closer than 500 meters from the canyon rim-- 



4 DR. VALENTINE: The Conservation Division [correct name?] is now 



5 MMS. 



6 DR. AURAND: But it was done back when you guys were in control, 



7 no doubt about it. 



8 DR. COOPER: It is very unlikely that there would be any 



9 measurable impact from the drilling for oil and gas on your commercial 



10 species in the heads of the canyons. There is one exception to this, 



11 and it is a very nebulous aspect of it. None of us has a very good feel 



12 for it. 



13 I really do not have a very good feel myself of what impact an oil 



14 spill may have on the larvae. 



15 DR. AURAND: We are going to talk about oil spills separately. 



16 DR. COOPER: But in terms of the effects on the mobile commercial 



17 species and so forth, there would probably be little, if any, impact. 



18 DR. AURAND: Okay. 



19 DR. GRASSLE: I guess this is on the existing populations. You 



20 are saying you don't know about recruitment? 



21 DR. COOPER: I do not know about recruitment. 



22 DR. GRASSLE: That makes it a little bit more tricky, because it 



23 means that there could be an impact, if you don't know about 



24 recruitment. 



25 DR. COOPER: We are separating spills. We are dealing only with 



26 operational discharges, and I don't think you should or necessarily 



27 would make that same statement for accidental discharges. 



28 DR. GRASSLE: Yes, I think that's best. 



29 DR. COOPER: Fred, one of my reasons for saying this is that your 



30 most commercially valuable species out there are lobster, which is 



31 highly migratory, in-shore, off-shore, in between canyons, at such a 



32 high rate that even if there was a 50 percent to 90 percent kill -off in 



33 a canyon, as long as there wasn't any long-term pervasive environmental 



308 



