BIOLOGY OF BIKINI ATOLL — SCHULTZ 315 



up the solid rocky atoll, leaving scarcely a trace of the animal proteins 

 in the limestone reefs or in the bottom deposits of the lagoon floor. 



The antiquity of such an isolated atoll must be very great to have 

 accunuilated through the eons of time such a tremendous variety of 

 animals and plants — to have deposited nearly two miles of animal and 

 plant remains on top of a volcanic mountain top. 



The distribution of this great variety of animal life that now lives 

 at Bikini and on other isolated atolls must have been accomplished 

 through pelagic stages — free-floating eggs and larvae — across vast 

 stretches of the open ocean. Fishes that build nests in the corals and 

 are without such a means of dispersal from one atoll to another, or 

 from island group to island group, have in many instances differen- 

 tiated sufficiently from their neighboring allies to be recognized as dis- 

 tinct species. Those with pelagic stages usually are distributed ex- 

 tensively, some ranging from Easter Island to the Red Sea. There 

 apparently has been enough interchange of individuals to keep each 

 of these widely ranging forms breeding as a single species. 



That Bikini and the northern Marshall Islands have some endemic 

 species of fishes is highly probable. Our recent ichthyological investi- 

 gations mdicate that in about one-third of the fish families studied, one 

 or two new or previously unloiown species occur. These are being 

 described along with every other kind of fish from Bikini, and the 

 publication of this material should make it possible to detect in 

 the future any anatomical changes that might be induced by the 

 Crossroads experiments. 



The mystery of the biological changes resulting from radiation are 

 little known. In that great natural laboratory, they are difficult to 

 observe and more difficult to measure. The time is too short since Able 

 and Baker Days for the radiation to have caused observable anatomical 

 changes in the animals, if any have occurred. Undoubtedly, alpha, 

 beta, and gamma rays will be emitted for years to come, and how those 

 rays will afl^ect tlie somatic and genetic cells of the organisms at Bi- 

 kini is yet to be discovered. Undoubtedly there has been and will be 

 sterilization of sex cells and the destruction of red blood cells, neo- 

 plastic growths may form, and possibly mutations will appear. 



Any organism that changes morphologically to any extent may not 

 be adapted to compete in the continuous struggle for existence, or if 

 weakened by the fission products, may have little chance of survival 

 in the keen competition that exists. These unfit animals soon form 

 part of the food chain in the intense struggle of life. The carnivorous 

 fishes, feeding on the algal eaters that fed on contaminated algae, are 

 in turn exposed to the isotypes and their radiations. Thus, during 

 the course of a few years, nearly every lagoon fish may be expected to 

 have been subjected to the radiation effects, at least in a small way, of 

 the atomic bomb. 



