The presentations on the first day of the conference set the stage for the second day’s small-group discussions in which conference participants focused on identifying and defining issues for the further attention of ESP socioeconomic studies. Three sets of concurrent sessions were held. In the morning, Jim Lima led a discussion of Pacific regional issues, Michael Baffrey and Tim Holder led a discussion of issues from the Alaska Region, and Harry Luton and Claudia Rogers led a discussion of issues from the Gulf of Mexico Region. In the first part of the afternoon, session leaders led discussions of issues of cross-regional significance identified in advance of the conference. Lima’s session discussed recreation and tourism, the Baffrey and Holder session discussed traditional knowledge (with the assistance of Glenn Sheehan), and the Luton and Rogers session discussed the changing nature of the petroleum industry. The third and final period of the day was devoted to issues flowing from the morning’s discussion. Lima led a discussion of the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in research, Baffrey and Holder led a discussion of approaches to studying cumulative impacts, and Luton and Rogers led a discussion of issues raised by the movement of oil and gas production into frontier areas in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Although recreation and tourism, traditional knowledge and the changing nature of the petroleum industry were identified as cross-regional issues, the morning's regional division of interest persisted into the afternoon. The discussion of traditional knowledge focused on Alaska, the discussion of recreation and tourism focused on California and the discussion of industry restructuring focused on the Gulf of Mexico. Many issues raised in the morning's regional sessions also resurfaced in these topical sessions. Hence, the summaries of the issues raised in these sessions are grouped with the issue summaries from the respective regional sessions and incorporate points made throughout the day. The sessions devoted to cumulative impacts and frontier areas also continued discussion of themes broached earlier in the day. For the sake of concision, rather then presenting the issues raised in these sessions separately, they are treated as part of the larger, day-long discussion. The issue summaries confine themselves to the content of the conference discussions. Hence, some points are elaborated more than others, questions are raised that are not resolved and the links among closely related issues are not always drawn.