128 MARINE SCIENCE 
trict and, after 1946, for the Atomic Energy Commission. The lab- 
oratory became, in 1958, the laboratory of radiation biology, and it 
has continued, under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission, 
to play a significant role in biological studies for— 
the purpose of determining the effects of radioactive contamination upon the 
oceans and life within the oceans and their estuaries (Marine Sciences and 
Research Act of 1961. Bill S. 901, Feb. 9, 1961, p. 30). 
From the small beginnings of 1943’ the work of the laboratory ~ 
expanded as the range of potential radioactive contamination grew 
wider and the problems more diverse. The marine phase of the lab- 
oratory’s work was initiated in 1946 when members of the staff par- 
ticipated in the atomic tests at Bikini Atoll. As the test devices 
increased in size, and as the areas of “near-in and intermediate fall- 
out” became larger, the “field laboratory” ultimately became a great 
area of ocean spread about the nuclear test atolls of Bikmi and Eni- 
wetok, an area encompassing about 114 million square miles and ex- 
tending from the eastern part of the Marshall Islands to the Marianas 
and from the Equator to about 15° N. In an area of this size the 
laboratory, supported by the Commission, the Department of De- 
fense, and appropriate elements of the armed ‘services, particularly 
the U.S. Navy, attempted to provide essential information on the 
distribution and possible effects of radioactive contaminants intro- 
duced into the marine environment as a result of nuclear tests. This 
work was by no means merely for the purpose of monitoring fallout, 
an activity conducted efficiently by other agencies, but rather to accu- 
mulate understanding of the behavior of radioactive fallout placed in 
the biology of an atoll or in that of the ocean itself. The program 
was an aspect of that new and larger field of radiation biology. It 
was then, and it is now, a program of research requiring appropriate 
research equipment and field facilities. 
During the 15 years that the laboratory has been concerned with 
evaluating the biological effects of the weapons testing program, shore 
facilities in the field have been provided by the Atomic Energy Com- 
mission at Eniwetok, Bikini, Kwajalein, and Rongelap Atolls—the 
last an atoll on which the laboratory has participated in long-term 
studies flowing from the accidental contamination of 1954. ‘Trans- 
portation to and from the test area and the offsite stations, as well as 
transportation for the oceanographic surveys, has been provided by 
the Department of Defense. 
Navy vessels of many types—LSI’s, LSM’s, LST’s, DE’s, and 
others—have been used in the radiological surveys. The laboratory 
has indeed appreciated the efforts of the Navy to provide facilities and 
services; however, a destroyer escort or a modified landing vessel is a 
poor substitute for a properly designed, equipped, and manned ocea- 
nographic survey ship capable of serving as a research base for radio- 
logical studies as far reaching as those in which the laboratory of 
radiation biology has been engaged. 
The Cuamman. I would think that this type of study has got to go 
even further than the military operations in that area because it is 
a subject cropping up every once in awhile in different activities in 
Congress. What is the real effect of the dumping of radioactive 
wastes in different places? Where do you dump it? Everybody, of 
course, 1s suspicious of it. 
