MARINE SCIENCE 129 
Actually a controversy occurs when you try to get the experts to 
give their opinion on it. It seems to me that these tests are going to 
have to move into that field, too, so that we can come to some fairly 
accurate conclusion as to what the effects are. 
Dr. Donatpson. The entire field of radiation measurement in the 
sea, and its effect, is a tremendous stimulus for both support and 
general interest. 
The initiation of the Chariot program of Operation Plowshare in 
1959 introduced a new phase in the university’s oceanographic-radio- 
biological studies, in which the facilities and experienced personnel 
of the department of oceanography and the laboratory of radiation 
biology were combined in a joint effort. In the 1959 and 1960 surveys 
of the Chukchi Sea and adjacent areas of the State of Alaska, as part 
of Project Chariot, substantial contributions were made to the knowl- 
edge of physical and biological oceanography of the Arctic seas, 
fisheries potentials were explored, runs of salmon enumerated, and 
the radiological contamination of the area was measured. 
Another team study is being conducted in the lower Columbia River 
estuarial region and in the adjacent sea to determine the distribution 
of the Columbia River waters in the Pacific Ocean. In addition to 
making the usual oceanographic studies, the university teams are also 
seeking to evaluate the amounts and kinds of low-level contamination 
from radioisotopes introduced into the river, and thus into the ocean, 
by the Hanford Atomic Products Laboratories. This unique oppor- 
tunity to develop a better basic understanding of the fate of radio- 
eae materials in a marine environment should be exploited to the 
Tullest. 
In spite of the herculean efforts of the past 17 years by biologists 
to understand and evaluate the problems created by the use of atomic 
energy, much still remains to bedone. We have, in a sense, really only 
learned enough to begin to see what directions our future work should 
take. As Dr. Detlev Bronk has aptly stated: 
As the use of atomic energy becomes more and more a part of our daily life 
it is essential that thoughtful attention in broad perspective be paid to the often 
subtle and perhaps profound effects of this new technology of man and his en- 
vironment (“The Effects of Atomic Radiation on Oceanography and Fisheries.” 
Foreword. National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Publica- 
tion No. 551, p. VII. (1957)). 
The advance of nuclear technology will produce quantities of vari- 
ous kinds of atomic wastes under a wide diversity of conditions. The 
techniques of biological evaluation must not merely keep pace with 
these developments but must anticipate them, proceeding so rapidly 
that the evaluations may be elements of proper planning rather than 
programs born “too little and too late.” The development of space 
programs using nuclear devices, of underwater nuclear powerplants 
and nuclear submarines, of nuclear-powered merchant ships, of har- 
bor excavation projects and of nuclear devices for creating new Pana- 
ma Canals, all will require a much more precise knowledge of the 
means for disposing of radioactive wastes. We need in the immediate 
future intensive work on such problems as the ultimate fate of radio- 
active materials in the sea, on the rates of sedimentation and the bond- 
ing upon bottom materials, on the biological recycling of radioactive 
materials, and on the selective uptake of materials by aquatic organ- 
