1 DR. GRASSLE: I guess I picture if you have more mixing over a 



2 large area of the surface, you're going to get it on more particles and, 



3 therefore, have a greater potential of getting the material to the 



4 bottom. 



5 I picture a blow-out at the bottom, I see that stuff as just 



6 shooting up and not going laterally much at all and getting above the 



7 bottom boundary layer pretty rapidly, and spreading out. 



8 DR. RAY: Just to add on to what John said, there are a number of 



9 other reasons coming out in the whole dispersements argument as to the 



10 advantage of it. 



11 One is that there is a suggestion that particulates are less 



12 susceptible to oil wetting if they have actually been dispersed and then 



13 the other key thing in a lot of the dispersements decisions is to dilute 



14 it below toxic levels as quickly as possible, because the more severe 



15 impacts that are perceived are what happens if the oil, as a surface 



16 slick, impacts on marine mammals and sea birds, and especially gets into 



17 shallow, sub-tidal, and inter-tidal areas. That is where the real 



18 measurable, significant impacts occur and that is all part of the 



19 overall picture as to the pros and cons of dispersing it into the water 



20 column. 



21 DR. TEAL: For our argument here, those things are not a priority 



22 for us. 



23 MS. HUGHES: That is correct. 



24 DR. BOTHNER: With respect to this issue on submarine canyons, I 



25 think Jerry's comment this morning about not having a true mechanism for 



26 getting it to the bottom, except for Fred's comment regarding spring 



27 blooms, that is still the opinion of the group, I imagine. 



28 DR. AURAND: I'm not sure you can say a whole lot about this, 



29 given the time and the information that you have, other than to address 



30 the issue of whether or not you think there is a way it can get into the 



31 canyon. 



32 The rest of it depends so much on what you spilled and when you 



33 spilled it and how much of it you spilled that other than saying oil 



328 



