468 



If we may have the lights out, I would like to show you this film. 

 This red snapper is only one oi a large number of fish that are members 

 of this family. I think that if anyone were to catch this fish either in a 

 commercial haul or by hook and line they would recognize this fish by 

 its outward appearance to be a valuable food fish. 



In this case we found many of these red snappers to be very toxic 

 in the area of the Line Islands and specifically Palmyra Island, 960 

 miles due south of Honolulu. We took a portion of this fish and fed 

 it to a cat, and you can see the reaction on the part of the cat. 



If you look over the human clinical case histories that have appeared 

 over several centuries of time you find that you get a comparable 

 reaction in humans. 



I think the pertinence of this problem at the moment is that we find 

 ourselves launching a major effort now in trying to develop food re- 

 sources on a vast scale in many parts of the world. 



We find that there is getting to be increasing fisheries operations in 

 tropical regions of the world. As we move into the Tropic's we find that 

 we also encounter many toxic agents that are not found in temperate 

 latitudes either in the north temperate or south temperate seas. 



Here we are in a group of Line Islands that are just a few degrees 

 north of the Equator. We used kittens for the simple reason that these 

 cats react in many ways like humans. 



In this particular cat you see a loss of the righting reflex. You take 

 your own cat and try that, and you will see that the cat will rapidly 

 right itself. There is a loss of some of the deep and superficial reflexes 

 and a certain number of. these animals, as with humans, die of a 

 respiratory paralysis. 



In the distribution of the poison you cannot predict either the edi- 

 bility of the fish or the part of the fish that may be affected in terms 

 of toxicity. You will notice that we have tested various sections of the 

 fish. 



In this latter case we are taking the intestines and feeding it to the 

 cat. In this nes:t cat which became severely poisoned and did not recover 

 you see a good example of a fatal intoxication. You will notice that 

 this cat had heavy abdominal respiration, is breathing with great diffi- 

 culty, has a complete loss of motor control, and can no longer control 

 its legs ; we also see this in a human. 



You may turn off the projector and go to the next film. 



As we start to map out the distribution of poisonous marine orga- 

 nisms we find that it becomes a serious problem in certain select island 

 areas particularly of the tropical Pacific islands. 



We find it is also a problem in many parts of the tropical Indian 

 Ocean. It is a problem to a lesser extent in the Mediterranean. It is also 

 a problem as the Soviet scientists have demonstrated in manj^ different 

 parts of the tropical Atlantic, and to a less extent in tropical West 

 Africa. 



In trying to develop and utilize our fisheries' resources in the future 

 we are going to have to take a very careful and critical look at the 

 subject of edibility which in the past has been largely neglected for 

 the simple reason that most of our commercial operations have not 

 been tropical but have been in temperate zones. 



However, the products that we are talking about produce adverse 

 effects. They are toxic agents. I would now like to discuss the positive 



