2.7 miles east-northeast of Belle Island, and thus contributed
the greatest amount of radioactivity to the Belle area.
was however,

There

residual radioactivity present from previous atomic

weapons detonated at Bikini Atoll and at Eniwetok.

Reef fishes were collected in the vicinity of Belle Island
by using rotenone,

hook and line,

or spear in depths ranging

from a few inches to about l2 feet.

Almost all of the collec-

tions were made on the seaward side of the island in Area F
(Fig.

1)

in a habitat containing approximately equal amounts of

coral and sand.

The area is typical of the reef of the northern

portion of the atoll except that it sustained a certain amount
of physical damage because of its proximity to the shot.
Attempts were made to confine the specimens analyzed to
those fish which were typical residents of the Belle area,
such efforts were not entirely successful.

but

The fish collected

during the first month after Nectar shot consisted mainly of
goatfish and mullet,

species which move along the north reef

from island to island.

Typical reef residents such as grouper,

damselfish and surgeonfish appeared to be scarce during this
period.

In all,

34 different collections were made in 1954 and

1955 which included 693 specimens, these representing 57 species
and 22 families of fishes.

However,

only 9 species from 9 fami-

lies were consistently present in the collections

(Table 1 and

Appendix).
The collections and treatment of data were similar to those
in earlier investigations by the Applied Fisheries Laboratory.

For complete details see WT-616 (UWFL-33).

The specimens were

Select target paragraph3