The fcllowinzs sequence of ovents illustrates some of tho difficultics
we hrve hac:
‘
(1) On March Sl wo road in onc of the Tokyo English language news-
oeccrs of two fishing vessels thxt wore contaminatec, ‘The Embassy callcd
tic Ministry of Forcion Affeirs who reported the following informtion by
tolvphone:
{e) The Koci Meru, then at tho port of Misaki, was at 9 cogroos,
22 minutes north, 178 dogroes, 19 minutes east on March 1, The surface
of the ship w-s rencin: 2443 counts per minuto, tho catch 155 counte por minute
and the mon 500 counts por minute, The fish had been impounded awaiting a
aecision as to thoir sifcty.
(>) The Myojiim Maru wes at Shiogonc.
On March 1 it was at 29
“ogrocs, 8 ninutcs north, 177 Ccerces, 19 minutos cast, The surface of
the shiv was renCing 50 to 400 counts vor minute, the fish 56 to 84 counts
peor minuto, anc the crew 40 to 90 counts per minute,
(2) Tho Enbassy informed tho Ministry of Wolfare of my intorcet in seo~
ing the ships anc fish ani tol4 thom a special plane woulc be availablo to
fly me to the two porta, The Forcign Office wes roqucstod to arrange for
access to the vessols ani was invited to sond whoovor thoy wisnec to cosig-
nate with mo on this trip,
of April 2,
A flisht was schodulod for oarly on the morning
(3) dround noon on April 1 tho Foroign Ministry callod the Enbessy
anc advised that the Myojiim Maru hac left Shiogone that morning, thet ite
Cestin=tion was not kmown, anc that tho fish hat. doen disposed of in an
unknown manncr, The Embassy informed the Foreign Ministry that, this beins the casc, wo would limit our trip to Misaki,
(4) at < PM on the aftornoon of April 1 the Forcien Ministry again
called to inform the Embassy that the Kooi Meru had lcft the port of Misaki
cne hour before to dump its contaminrtcd catch at sca, The Embassy askoc
the Foreign Ministry to call the vesscl back inasmuch as it wis only onc
hour off port but the Japancse stated this could not be accomplishod,
To gummarize the tuna situction, it is my belicf that no significantly
contaninatec. tuna heve arrived in Japan cxcopt for the catch from the Fukuryu
Maru,
Rigorous ineyections procecuros will undoubtedly Ciscloso cortain
anounts of low lcvcl radioactivity on tho surface of the tuna but tho
sisnificence of this is minimized by tho practice of skinning tuna prior
to canning, In the moantime the tuna markct has etabilizoc anc tuna
representatives of Amorican tuna intcrcsts have informet mc that their
compenics arc no longer concerned ovor the problen,