"oe TO FROM SUBJECT: SYMBOL: Wo. 4. em aese 1 coples. UNITED STATES GOVERNMEN Lt. Col. R. I. Schnittke, Chief, Overseas Test Section, Division of Military Application a‘ ” a. onsists of Tea é Or (poe es DATE: April 11, 1957 - . Allyn H. Seymour, Marine Biologist, Biology Branch Division of Biology and Medicine (ig “ vVLO8PO0TOddOH erOffice Memorandum This document ¢ = STANDARD FORM NO. 64 amas COMMENTS REGARDING THE USE OF TAOHGT ATOLL AS A esr STTE(s) EMB: AHS “s Consideration has been given to the effect that the use of mong’ atoll as a test site may have upon (1) the Japanese tuna reer2 (2) contamination of ocean vaters, and (3). bird Life.ox!RRR > @) Antigi. van be : From the Japanese fishing.recoris for the period. from May. 1953 sere to September 1954 there no fishing in the area about Taongi,-+=..5 (160° to 170°R, 13° to 16H) and little fishing in the Bikinian Enivetok area. The greatest fishing intensity was a few degrees age north of the equator. Fishing boats in transit to the fishing. grounds may occasionally pass near Taongl. Sooty SYD . TORS ATIOer 1 pete Tyne FCILE SES} AMES 2. CLASSHICATION CHARGED we f 3. CONTAINS NO BOE © LASIPED EO | (2) tg Fallout into the ocean from tests at teong! +vould be expected FF to be into the same general part of the North Equatorial system as |. = fallout from the Eniwetok Test Site. The flow of the North Equatorial 4:4 current at these latitudes is westward, but it is possible that fall- i#ee Bs out from either test site may temporarily become part of a local eddy ~*~ = system. The likelihood of tunas entering water contaminated by fall- _ ape Eds out is no greater, and probably less, for Taongi than for the EnivetokME Test Site, as Taongi, being north of Eniwetok, is farther removed trom the area in which tuna are most abundant. (3) ‘There is an enormous number of sea birds at‘Tecngi vil Marshallese, in the pet considered to be a bird reserve. '; Bikar . were also bird reserves. From the literature it is known that soot, terns, wedge-tailed shearwaters, and frigate birds are present ins* great numbers, but it is not known if this atoll is used as the -— exclusive rookery for any one species. If the amount of guano is - an indication, the evidence would indicate that this atoll is not an important rookery, as Fosberg writes “eo -@HADOwas 50 scarce it about the birds present throughout the year probably‘ts not avail-,:sw able in the literature because, other than the annual visit vy they only on a few occasions and for short periods have visitors. setii foot on the atoll. Parties by Cameron in 1893, Immer in 1896,. Thi¢ material containg info : National defense of the i ee a - ;