Measurements of velocity shear microstructure were taken March 3--7, 1975, adjacent to the island of Santa Maria in the Azores. From the data it is possible to estimate the energy dissipation over 5-m vertical intervals. Measurements within 5 km of the island show regions of high dissipation (up to 10-3 W/m3) as much as 45 m thick at the base of the mixed layer. The maximum dissipations 80 km from the island are not in the seasonal thermocline but rather at depths exceeding 250 m, where the values averaged over 5 m reach 10-4 W/m3 or more. The vertical thickness scales of the dissipative patches are of the order of 10 m. Statistical analysis shows that 80% of the estimates of &egr; are 10-5 W/m3 or less; the other 20% of the water column is responsible for 85% of the total energy dissipation.