The following sequence of events i we have had: (1) trates some o . On March 31 we read in one of &® papers of two fishing vessels that were co the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who reported "WM telephone: (a) MEnglish language newsThe Embassy called ANE information by The Koei Maru, -then at the port of Misa 22 minutes north, 178 degrees, 19 minutes east on Merch of the ship was re ading 2443 counts per minute, the catc minute and the men 500 counts per minute. ing a decision as to their safety. (b) a The fish had beeYag es; The Myojiim Maru was at Shiogone. On March 1 it ‘degrees, 8 minutes north, 177 degrees, 19 minutes east. the ship was reading 50 to 400 counts per minute, The surte the fish 56 to 84 per minute, and the crew 0 to 90 counts per minute. (2) difficulties counts The Embassy infcrmed the Ministry of Welfare of my interest in see~ ing the ships and fish and told them a special plane would be available to. fly me to the two ports. The Foreign office was requested to arrange for access to the vessels and was invited to send whoever they wished to designate with me on this trip. A flight was scheduled for early on the morning of April 2. (3) Around noon on April 1 the Foreign Ministry called the Embassy and advised that the Myojiim Maru had left Shiogone that merning, that its destination was not known, and that the fish had been disposed of in an unknown manner. The Embassy informed the Foreign Ministry that, this be- ing the case, we would limit our trip to Misaki. (4) .4t U PM on the afternoon of April 1 the Frreign Ministry again called to inform the Embassy that the Koei Naru had left the port of Misaki one hour before to dump its contaminated catch at sea. The Bnbassy asked the Foreign Ministry to call the vessel back inasmuch as it was only one hour off port but the Japanese stated this could not be accomplished. To summéris2 the tuna situation, it is my belief that no significantly contaminated tuna have arrived in Japan except for the catch from the Fukuryu Maru. Rigerous inspections procedures will undoubtedly disclose certain amounts of low level radioactivity on the surface of the tuna but the significance of this is minimized by the practice of skinning tuna rrior to canning. In the meantime the tuna market has stabilized and tuna representatives of American tuna interests have informed me that their companies are no longer concerned over the problem. § o 3 Z a & 5 2 &. = 8 fe