1 DR. VALENTINE: I want to alter "B," and that would include a 



2 little bit of that. 



3 In "B," if we are ready — are we ready to talk about "B?" 



4 DR. GRASSLE: Go ahead. 



5 DR. VALENTINE: I would like to say that some canyons may not meet 

 5 the biological criteria. It seems like these canyons are heavily 



7 described under "Biological Criteria." We are talking about their 



8 uniqueness biologically and that kind of stuff. 



9 I would say that some canyons may not meet the biological criteria 



10 defined by the group, and be similar faunally to the slope, and then the 



11 other sentence I did not change. 



12 It seems that the canyons have lots of attributes, but the 



13 biological aspect of it is the one that is really critical for oil and 



14 gas impact. 



15 DR. GRASSLE: Okay. Maybe that "B" should be then, "More 



16 information is needed to specify the special biological characteristics 



17 of canyons." 



18 DR. VALENTINE: Well, the idea is that some of these places called 



19 canyons do not fit the biological criteria of the large ones that we 



20 have studied. 



21 DR. GRASSLE: "More information is needed to specify which 



22 canyons--" 



23 DR. COOPER: "--are important from the fisheries point of view." 



24 DR. GRASSLE: No. "--have special biological characteristics." 



25 DR. COOPER: I put in the term "fisheries." I think it is more 



26 pragmatic. 



27 DR. KRAEUTER: You could define some that might not have a fishery 



28 but would have the kinds of corals and things like that and still 



29 probably meet the definition of canyon and just might be really hard and 



30 so you would not have the grottos and stuff. I am not saying you should 



31 exclude it. 



32 DR. GRASSLE: "More information is needed to specify which canyons 



33 have fisheries or other special biological characteristics." 



34 DR. VALENTINE: "--and which do not." 



415 



