Page Reviewer Comment 



92 Pat Hughes [Disagrees with Cooper's statement about 



commercial species' ability to recover 

 relatively quickly due in part to growth to 

 maturity at a young age] .. .lobsters take 6 1/2 

 to 7 years before they are sexually mature. 



93 Page Valentine [Disagrees with Cooper's statement that 20 



percent of the upper continental slope off 

 Georges Bank is occupied by submarine 

 canyons] .. .no data to back up this statement. 



99 Robert Ayers and [Both reviewers questioned the 0.1 cm/yr 



Nancy Maciolek deposition of particles from drilling mudsbeyond 



the well site compared to 0.06 cm/yr for material 

 deposition--either the actual values or the 

 ratio caused question.] In addition, in the 

 Toms Canyon study (in the mid-Atlantic), Ayers 

 reports that sedimentation rates from drilling 

 mud varied from as high as 10 percent of the 

 natural sedimentation rate 1,500 m from the 

 wellsite (20-m depth) to about 0.1 percent of 

 the natural sedimentation rate in the canyon, 7 

 km from the wellsite (540-m depth). 



100 Robert Ayers [Drilling muds and cuttings] produce no water 



column impact. They can cause a temporary 

 decrease in abundance levels of immobile 

 macrobenthos in the immediate vicinity (about 

 200 m) of the wellsite. There is usually no 

 change in diversity. Also, there is usually no 

 detectable impact in high-energy environments. 



101 James Ray [Questions the accuracy of the statement, 



"...even if full production were to take place 

 on Georges Bank, there would be no more than 30 

 platforms--the number in the much more 

 productive North Sea."] [page 266 of the 

 verbatim transcript for February 8, 1989 states 

 that because of the large number of wells able 

 to be drilled from one platform, the number of 

 platforms used would be smaller--and that the 

 number of platforms in the North Sea was thought 

 to be about 20, rather than 30--Ed.] 



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