Sollecting material.
The nature of the study conducted by the Division of Radiobiology
tade it necessary to collect a wide variety of plants and animals from
Bis many locations as possiblee
On Figure 2
are marked the general
@ locations where collections were made, while in Table 1
are listed the
collecting areas and numbers of fish collected,
Since fish made up the greatest bulk of the material collected
for counting the activity of substances in tissues, and fish occur in
m
Geatest abundance on and near the coral reefs, the majority of collesticns
a Were nade in selected spots, during low tide periods, after finely ground
2 derris root had been spread into the water.
In the warm water, the active
ingredient in the derris root, rotonone, stunned or Killed the fish Within
afew minutes,
Men were dispersed about the area with dip nets to collect
| the fish as they sucoumbed to the poison
(see Figure 3).
To collect fish in deeper waters, 20-36 feet, similar techniques were
‘ m ‘ployed, except that the actual spreading of the poison and gathering of
wst of the material was performed by men operating in shallow water diving
| outfits,
For this type of collecting coral heads were selected that were
somewhat isolated from adjacent coral outgrowths,
Divers worked in pairs
with one navy diver accompanying one of the scientific group, so that advan-
tage could be taken of the training of each, A total of five diving”
collections were made.
(See Table 1).
Collections of invertebrate:: material were made on the sunken target
vessels by the divers on the U.SeS. Coucal.e
Material from these sunken -
ships was brought to the surface and the living material removed for study.
Hook and line fishing was resorted to in capturing some of the larger
fish and to spread the area of sampling to regions and species that werenot
nited to rotonons poisoning,
A fishing contest held for crew mambers of
AUSSIEor aa
TMI, Of wed ars eres 1
OT
no