NORTH ATLANTIC SUBMARINE CANYONS: MAINE'S PERSPECTIVE 



Katrina Van Dueen 

 Maine State Planning Office 



Maine has long been concerned about oil and gas 

 activity in canyon areas because of the unique and varied 

 habitats and diverse and abundant species found there. 

 These areas deserve special attention because they are a 

 nationally significant natural resource and because they 

 serve as nursery areas and refuge for commercially important 

 fish and shellfish. Our concern has focussed on the 

 potential harm to these habitats that could be caused by 

 routine and accidental discharges from drilling activities, 

 as well as the bottom disturbance caused by the presence of 

 drilling rigs and the exclusion of fishermen from canyon 

 areas. 



Maine's interest in the canyons may not be as great as 

 in some of the other North Atlantic states because fewer of 

 our fishermen make the long trip to the southern edge of 

 Georges Bank. However, some of the species that spend part 

 of their lives in the canyons migrate inshore at other 

 times, especially lobsters, making the canyons important to 

 Maine fishermen even as they fish at a distance. 



We are open to working together in this forum with the 

 hopes of acheiving some consensus on the viability of 

 drilling activity in and near submarine canyons. Prior to 

 Sale 82 we worked with the MMS on a canyon stipulation, an 

 indication of our openness to creative solutions. However, I 

 am very concerned about the scope of this workshop. The 

 workshop agenda appears to focus solely on "what happens" in 

 canyons with no time allocated for discussing whether what 

 happens is acceptable; the workshop hypotheses talk about 

 "low probability of serious environmental impact" and an 

 absence of "serious environmental risks. " The stated 

 hypotheses can not be tested without consensus on what are 

 acceptable risks. Although this Judgement can and should be 

 made with full consideration of the available scientific 

 information, it is ultimately a policy decision. 



B-17 



