and Seymour
(1963)
reported
an
average
60
.
Co concentration of
0.68 pCi.g wet in the liver of eleven .tuna from the Central
wane
Pacific.
.
60
.
We found no detectable
Co in tuna from the Japanese
fishery in 1°67 and 1°68, but did find significant concentrations
of
60
.
.
tas
ong
.
Co in yellowfin tuna collected near Bikini Atoll in 1969,
_
Tt appears that the source of
the atoll.
60
.
.
Co in these yellowfin tuna was
This is consistent with Welander's
(1967)
report of
‘
as
_
- 60
:
.
,
relatively high concentrations of
Co in marine organisms at
Bikini Atoll in 1964,
330 pci/e dxy.
average
9
.
2
lagoon contained
Liver of fish from different islets in the
0
Held (1971)
a
.
Co concentrations ranging from 79 to
reported values as high as 260 pCi/g
dry in fish livers collected at Bikini in 1969.
of
0
If the source
Co for the yellowfin tuna sampled is indeed Bikini Atoll,
it would appear that the tuna stay in the vicinity cf the atoll
for an appreciable period of time.
It would be pertinent to investigate Bikini and Eniwetok
Atolis,
1958,
sites of nuclear and thermonuclear tests from 1946 to
as possibly significant point sources, essentially, of
radionuclides in the North Equatorial Current.
Cesium-137 concentrations in the Pacific tuna,
including
those from the Bikini area, were of the same order of magnitude
as the values reported by Seymour
(1965),
3
(1967)
and by Folsom and Young
average valucs of 0.03 to 0.09 pCi/g wet muscle tissue.