PLANS, EQUIPMENT AND OPERATIONS AT SEA
The marine survey whose results are reported herewith was
one of two such projects set up by the Division of Biology and
Medicine for the purpose of collecting information on the levels
and distribution of radioactivity introduced into the waters of
the Eniwetok-Bikini area by the atomic testing program of 1956.
A more extensive survey is scheduled for September 1956,
As
originally conceived,
the survey was to be made
"from
the area of highest average fallout to the westward fringe of
the detectable introduced radioactivity in the water."
Final
plans were made upon arrival in the field when a review of information available on fallout patterns indicated the desirability of a survey pattern that would provide ample sampling of
water and plankton in the areas immediately about Eniwetok and
Bikini as well as to the west of Eniwetok during the ten days
granted for the survey.
The cruise pattern thus projected, coordinated with Task
Group 7.3 and reported to the Division of Biology and Medicine,
anticipated the coverage of fifty collecting stations on a
grid extending from a line approximately 180 miles west of Eniwetok to a line 30 miles east
of Bikini.
The north and south
boundary lines were 11° N and 14° N (Fig. 7).
This ppgttern was
CHIVES
somewhat modified during the course of the survey because of
the testing program.
The survey, however, actually covered
fifty-three stations between Monday,
June 21,
June 11,
and Thursday,
on a track of 3,300 miles over 78,000 square miles of
‘