~14-
species ingest bottom material indiscriminately and that they
migrate very little.
Activity of approximately six disinte-
grations per minute per gram (d/m/g) dried soil was found in
Rigili and Runit soil and 30 d/m/g in that from Rojoa, and from
four to 200 d/m/g in the sea cucumber intestine contents.
This
work will soon be published as an Applied Fisheries Laboratory
report.
Other projects included the development of a technique for
separating trace quantities of radiostrontium from large amounts
of ashed biological material or sand from the Pacific area and
the analysis of well water used in the School of Fisheries
experimental hatchery.
D.
Studies of the Marshall Islands fishes
A good deal of work was done with fishes of the Marshall
Islands in preparation for the studies at Bikini and Eniwetok
this year.
A field key for rapid identification at the Eniwetok
laboratory of over one hundred species which are most abundant
on the reefs was prepared and taken to the Pacific laboratory.
Also, an improved fish sampling program was organized for the
investigations at the field laboratories.
A paper on fishes of the Marshall and Marianas Islands ‘”),
with one of the Laboratory staff members as co-author, was
published by the Smithsonian Institute, United States National
Museum,
in November 1953.