in the catches was made to determine if the difference in
counts between net hauls and between stations could be accounted
for by the type of organism in the catch.

Although the catches

varied considerably both quantitatively and qualitatively,
there was strong evidence that activity of the samples was
not associated with the presence of any one group of organisms.
Autoradiographs of a dried plankton sample showed that the

activity was usually associated with inanimate objects, but
even when the organisms were active the association was not

with any one particuler group (see Section 4.9.1).
evidence was obtained from the paired hauls,

Further

in which the

activity of the samples often varied but the composition of

the catch was similar.

For example, the catch in net B and

net D at Bogallua appeared similar in composition - foraminiférans: principally, and some snails, copepods and a few
miscellaneous eggs and arrow worms - but the sample from
net B was 7 times more active than the sample from net D

(1,160,000 d/m/g + 155,000 d/m/g).

Since net B was of finer

mesh than D (173 and 74 meshes per inch respectively) it might
be thought that some smsll radioactive organism was escaping
the D net and was being caught in B, but microscopic examination of the eatches did not demonstrate this to be true.
1s believed that the fine-meshed net was more efficient in
capturing suspended, inanimate radioactive particles.
Results.

The radioactivity in plankton samples is

recorded in Table 2.
~

23

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It

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