study Area I: Santa Barbara Channel 

 Interview Results 



Thirty interviews were analyzed. Four interviews were conducted 

 with work boat skippers, four with crew boat hands, twenty with 

 platform workers, and two interviews with land-based office personnel. 



Most people were helpful and cooperative when approached to be 

 interviewed. Almost everyone seemed to be interested in marine life 

 and they could recall seeing at least sea lions. The awareness of the 

 workers toward marine life varied from disinterested to very aware and 

 interested. Interviews conducted in a relaxed atmosphere rather than 

 trying to strictly follow the prepared questionnaire format inspired 

 cooperation, although some of the questions of lesser importance were 

 omitted. Most people could not recall the direction that the sighted 

 animals were traveling or their distance from the platform. 



The results are shown in Table 1. Graphs 1 and 2 show that when 

 more people were interviewed on a platform more animal sightings were 

 reported. With the exception of platform Hogan, interest in marine 

 life was found essentially the same at all study points. With a larger 

 sample size the personnel at Hogan would probably fit the trend. There 

 are all combinations of relative numbers of whales compared to relative 

 numbers of dolphins. As in the pilot study these results show that 

 many animals are seen from the platforms. Only four people interviewed 

 could provide any information about platform activity influencing 

 cetacea behavior. A third of those interviewed (10) stated that the 

 mammals seemed to come in closer when there was less noise, but didn't 

 seem to avoid or be driven away from the platforms when they were noisy. 



Sighting Card Results 



Only 11 sighting cards from five platforms were returned during the 

 whole project. These cards were analyzed by hand because of 

 insufficient numbers for computer evaluation. 



Three cards were from workers on platform Grace, four were from 

 Hondo, two from Houchin, one from Hogan, and one from a worker on Emmy. 



One of the three sighting cards from Chevron's platform Grace 

 reported only sharks. Therefore, this sighting had no relevance to 

 this project. Another reported a school of dolphins moving south, 1/2 

 mile southeast of the platform. The platform didn't seem to affect 

 their travel. The third sighting was of four whales, about 30 feet in 

 length, moving northwest, about 500 yards west of the platform. Based 

 on the reported behavior, and the date of the sighting, these were 

 probably gray whales. 



C-17 



