-

55

-

given in NAS-NRC Publication 655.
The value

of the information in Table IV is

limited by the amount and the reliability of the data.
The lack of information on the presence of elements of
fission preducts,

in a compilation by Vinogradov (1953) of

data on the chemical composition of fish, is a good indication that little work has been done on these elements.

Fukai and Meinke (1959) in a more recent publication, have
reviewed the literature for data relative to the occurrence
of trace elements in sea water and marine organisms including the soft parts of fishes.

The information about trace

elements in fish was either meager,
reliability,

or nonexistent.

of questionable

For marine plankton,

valuable

information about trace elements in ten species of marine
zooplankton,

based upon spectrographic

analyses,

published by Nicholls, Curl and Bowen (1959).
beginning studies by Nicholls et al.,

has been

From these

it now appears that,

"...for any given chemical element there will eventually
be found at least one plankton species capable of spectacu-

larly concentrating it."

This is of significance to the

consideration of trace elements in fish because many plankton organisms are preyed upon by fishes and therefore fish
may have available to them trace elements in a concentrated

Select target paragraph3