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the fish aboard were radioactive, as well as fish caught
by other vessels fishing in nearby areas,
there was a
serious disruption in the tuna fishing industry.
of tuna for the fresh fish market stopped,
Sale for export.
The sale
as well as the
As a consequence the Japanese arbitrarily
established an acceptable level of radiation for fish and
the sale of tuna resumed but at a depressed price for some
time.
A conference between American and Japanese scientists
also helped to re-establish the tuna market.
The acceptable
level was arbitrarily set as a value less than 100 counts
per minute as measured with an end window G-M counter
placed 10 cm from the surface of the fish.
Fish of higher
counts were discarded and usually buried.
During the survey period 71,179 tons of fish from
2,152 boats were inspected at five designated ports.
Of
these boats 11 per cent had their catch discarded and a
total of 358 tons or 0.5 per cent of the fish inspected
were declared radioactive.
The amount of radioactivity in
the discarded fish was as follows:
64 per cent between 100
and 500 cpm; 19 per cent between 500 and 1,000 cpm; 14 per
cent between 1,000 and 3,000 cpm; 1.8 per cent between 3,000
and 5,000 cpm; and 0.8 per cent over 5,000 cpm (Kawabata
1956a).
The use of a field survey-type meter to monitor