ia we at ee Bag ABSTRACT ER Lg WR teh ay hb pe Poe ae | kame aor ee 5. rs OS alk + . «ye wet og $ 4 ~ex. fe debonation of shotone: at Bikini Atoll’on March.1,- 1954, pradused a: fallout: of. radioactive: ash upon RongelapAtoll, marshall Islands... The distribution of theradioactiveash on the islands andin the. plants and animals ofthe erea has bean studied and evaluated. by. the. Applied FisheriesLaboratory, tativersity of Washington.°°. | During the first expedition to Rengelap Atoll on March 26, 1954, biological ganplas were collected and measurements made of the radiation contemination, Gn three additional expeditions extensive collections of material were made for this study, the last on January 25-30, 1955. the decline in radicactivity was measwred in 1499 samples of fish, Invertebrates, land plants, algae, birds, plankton, gol] and water from the Rongelap area. During this atudy particular emphasis was placed upon evaluation of the radioactivity in food used by the natives, Coconut milk collected on March 26, 1954, contained 1.03 mierocurles per Kllogram of wet tissue while the eceonut meat had 1.16 uc/k. By January 25«30, 1955s the level in coconut milk had declined to 0.041 uc/Ac and the meat to 0,036 uc/k. Fish muscle on March 26, 1954, averaged 2.74 uc/c and fish liver 204. uc/c, The decline to January 25-30 wes 0.10 ue/c for the muscle and 3.52 ue/k for . the liver of fish, Somewhat similar declines were found for glam muscle, crab muscle, bird muscle and liver, and for squash,