solved radioactive material, may accumulate on the surface of
plenkton organisms,
ticles

and that in addition there are larger par-

(the cheesy material)

Algae.

suspended in the water.

In order to evaluate the "speck" contamination of

algae, autoradiographs of washed and unwashed specimens were
made.

Washing was done by scrubbing with a brush and detergent

and was followed by rinsing with running tap water.

Autoradiographs of an alga, Udotea, before and after washing, are shown in Figure 2la

and».

spots were removed by washing,

Some of the radioactive

but most of them were not,

showing

that a major portion of the radioactivity is actually present
within the alga. The even distribution of radioactivity in the
filaments of Lyngbia and in the ramuli of Bryopsis,

shown in

c and d of this figure, indicate that "speck" contamination is
of minor importance

in these specimens.

In one alga of the pre-

shot collection (Fig. 2le) adhering soil particles were responsible for numerous hot spots

in the autoradiograph.

The

autoradiographic method has indicated the presence of both surface and absorbed contamination in the algae collected before
and after Mike shot.

The relative amount of speck contamina-

tion was high in some cases and low in others;

however, a quan-

titative estimation cannot be made.
Invertebrates.

Among the invertebrates, an outstanding

example of spotty distribution of activity was

on @ piece of coral of the genus Acropora,
November 8,

1952,

the occurrence

taken at Bogallua

of 3 highly radioactive nodules firmly at-

o2

-

oonyt AY’

yet
CO Te

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