Radioactive Coconut Crabs
One of the few anomalies which has resulted from the radioactive fallout
persists even today.
The coconut crabs of Rongelap Atoll, called birgus latro,
or, the robber crab, have retained significant amounts of radioactivity to
this day.
This is in part due to these crabs feeding on material which contains
long lived radioactive isotopes like strontium and cesium.
The cesium 137 tends
to concentrate in the muscle of the crab, while the strontium
the carapace, or shell
shell,
(in effect,
concentrates in
the strontium locates in the calcium-rich
just as it does in the bones of human beings.
The shell of the crab is
actually the outer, or ectoskeleton, the equivalent of the internal human
skeleton.
What has made this creature become a dietary item forbidden to the
Rongelapese is the crabs’ habit of eating their own shells which they have
sloughed off, or discarded periodically.
In this manner, they manage to retain
a relatively high amount of radioactivity in the shells and thus the Rongelapese
have been told not to eat them.
During the 1972 survey, Dr. Conard brought the
Rongelapese what appeared to be good news concerning this crab, rightly
considered by the people to be a delicacy.
He told them that the crabs from
Rongelap and a neighboring island could now be eaten at a rate of one per
person per day.
The crabs from other islands on the atoll, he indicated, would
still remain on the restricted list until radiological analyses showed that
they were safe to eat.
The 1972 Annual Survey of Rongelap and Utirik
The events leading up to the delay of the regular 1972 survey which
normally would have taken place in March of that year, and leading to the
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