ash of tuna.
that time,

‘This was less than one percent of the permissible level at
Although the activities were too low for accurate radio-

chemical analyses, the strontium-90 levels in the edible portions of
fish were less than two percent of the permissible. level at that time.
For these open ocean surveys, the radioactivity in fish was less
by factors of 10 o¢ more than for fish at Eniwetok or Bikini Atolls, but
was several to many times as much as for fish from Puget Sound, an area
then considered to be free from fission product contamination.
The next oceanic survey was conducted during June and September 1956
during the Redwing series.

The cruise zig-zagged west of Bikini Atoll and

Eniwetok Atoll to collect plankton samples (Hines, 1962, p. 223; and
Lowman, 1958).

layer.

The fallout was found not to have penetrated the surface

Since megaton explosions had occurred at Bikini Atoll, radioacLlivity

was high.

Although the greatest radioactivity found for plankton was

1.2 million d/min-g north of Bikini, the minimum level of 1,300 d/min-g
was almost as high as the maximum level recorded in Operation Troll in

1955.

Another cruise on the ship Marsh acted as a sequel to the

Shunkotsu-Maru by covering approximately the same sea area in attempting
to follow the Redwing contamination in September 1956.

At these later

times after nuclear explosions and at these greater distances, the
radioactivity in plankton was lower.

The. maximum was 21,000 d/min-g

eighty miles north of Eniwetok.

|

For Operation Hardtack in 1958, the U.S.S. Rehoboth was used for
radioactivity observations (Hines,

1962,

p. 275).

Plankton radioactivity

was as high as 32 million d/min+g following the Wahoo underwater explosion
on the ocean side at the south of Eniwetok Atoll.
20

Fish, shrimp, and

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