BOMBS AT BIKINI 



ographic, biological, and geological .surveys of the 

 atoll. Aboard her were wave motion experts, icthvolo- 

 gists, botanists, zoologists, and geologists drawn from 

 the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Uni- 

 versity of California's Scripps Institution of Ocean- 

 ography, the Smithsonian Institution, the University of 

 Michigan, the U. S. Geological Survey, the U. S. De- 

 partment of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 and the Army and Navy. These men, led by Lieutenant 

 Commander C. A. Barnes of the U. S. Coast Guard, 

 were the first scientists to reach Bikini, and they were 

 among the last to leave. Their most urgent job was 

 studying the lagoon currents to find out what might 

 happen after the B-Day explosion, which would cer- 

 tainly disperse enormous quantities of radioactive ma- 

 terials in the water. Prompt re-entry into the target 

 area would depend largely on accurate knowledge of 

 these previously-uncharted currents. 



The BOWDITCH'S scientists also took censuses of 

 populations of fishes, corals, and other animals, to per- 

 mit later evaluation of the effects of the bombs on ani- 

 mal life of the atoll. Fish were caught with hook, net, 

 and seine. In some instances, the fish were poisoned 

 with rotenone and picked up dead. To increase the sig- 

 nificance of the censuses, similar censuses were taken at 

 unaffected ''control" atolls, Rongerik and Rongelap, 

 125 miles upwind, and also at Eniwetok, 200 miles 

 downwind. Botanists made systematic surveys of plant 

 life, and geologists gave the atoll the most thorough 



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