Twenty-nine portable GM meters for hand monitoring at the smaller
canneries were borrowed from the California State Civil Defense Organization by the UCLA-AEC Project. The biophysics branch at UCLA assumed the
responsibility for the operation, maintenance and repair of the hand and
automatic instruments.
The alarms of the automatic instruments were set at 2X background
(O.--mr/hr. or 500 c/p/m.), namely .02 mr/hr (1100 e/p/m) for a 6-inch
wide fish.
The monitoring was started at all plants on May 12, 1955.
Hand monitoring by the deputy Food and Drug inspectors was discon=
tinued on July 7, 1955, and the ANC automatic counting units were removed
from large plants on August 3, 1955.
The automatic counting units have
been overhauled and stored at the UCLA-AEC Project for future emergencies
on the west coast.
From May 12 to August 3, 1955, a total of over 9 million powds
of fish and fish products were monitored as shown by the following
table.
Terminal
Variety
Island
Anchovies
Mackerel
Shark Livers
Shark Fins
Tuna (pre-biast)
Tuna (post-blast)
209 500
2 9 193,500
8l,,500
15 ,000
16,850,000
16,691,000
San Diego
Monterey
Total
11,000
=
~
209 , 500
2 520,500
-
-
15,000
~
10,402,000
2,713,000
-
~
344,000
8),500
27,252,000
19,748,000
(All figures are in pounds)
Total Tuna Monitored
17,001,000
Total Fish Monitored
9,514,500 pounds
Other Fish Monitored
2,513,500
No radioactivity was detected in fish caught in the Wigwam area or
eastern Pacific.
Three special problems occurred during the monitoring profram.
(a)
On June 13 the South Coast Cannery unloaded a shipment of
377 (12,580 lbs.) frozen yellow fin tuna imported from Yokohama, Japan,
via San Francisco. The automatic counting instruments detected radioactivity in four fish of the total shipment. One of the four exhibited
readings greater than 0.10 mr/hr at four inches from all body surfaces.
Inside the oral cavity readings of 0.2 to 0.5 mr/nr were recorded.
four fish
The
were impounded and the remainder of the shipment was released