37
4. Materials and Methods
4.1
Collection and Selection of Samples
4.11
Collection.
Collections of reef fish were made
during the summer of 1958 and the spring and summer of 1959
at Rongelap Atoll.
beachrock,
Fish were taken from tide pools in the
from around coral heads and over sandy bottom
areas of the lagoon,
from the narrow interisland channels,
from grooves and surge channels in the seaward face of the
reef and from the seaward reef flat by rotenone
blasting and spearing; and from
the deeper
poisoning,
waters of the
lagoon and the broad passes between the islands by trolling
with hook and line.
4.12
Selection of samplesfor analysis.
In 1958,
an
attempt was made to collect a broad sample of the fish life
of the
lagoon and the outer reefs.
It was expected that
analyses of such a sample, with the improved instrumentation
available at that time,
would enable
the
verification and
expansion of the information obtained from the 1957 survey.
Analysis of the 1958 samples clearly
tendency for induced,
transition element
demonstrated a
radiomaterials to
become concentrated in goatfish - ranging, benthic carnivores
of the family Mullidae which feed mainly on benthic inverte-~
brates.
In 1959 therefore,
it was decided to concentrate the