471 



the involvement of marine plants, inveitebrates, micro-organisms, fish, 

 and finally the involvement of man. 



When Minamata disease once starts in a human, it is completely 

 irreversible. We can change our legislation but we cannot change the 

 disease in an individual. There is nothing that therapeutically can be 

 done about it. 



Furthermore, we have contaminated our environment to the point 

 that we have for at least an extended period of time an irreversible 

 situation. So I say that we are dealing with some very serious prob- 

 lems when we talk about pollution that go beyond the visible desti-uc- 

 tion of the environment, as in the case of an oil spillage such as we 

 recently had in Santa Barbara. 



In this next film I can show you what happens in a human. This 

 little boy had picked up what appeared to be an edible crab. 



He took the crab home and ate it, later it was observed that when 

 he went to school he was unable to write on the board. He had extreme 

 difficulty in trying to button his coat. He finally had problems in walk- 

 ing a straight line. But he was a mild case and this boy fortunately 

 recovered. 



The insidious part about this problem is that these clinical develop- 

 ments usually arise long after the time where you can really do some- 

 thing about them. 



What I am trying to say is that we do not have an adequate monitor- 

 ing system in marine environmental toxicology. 



When we fail to have an effective monitoring system — and may I 

 add that we do not have one here in the United States — these things 

 can get out of hand and finally result in disastrous situations like this. 



This is a mild case. You can see the boy having a great deal of diffi- 

 culty trying to write on the board. We have also had recent reports 

 from Sweden where if the toxic effluent continues at the present rate 

 we v/ill soon approach such toxic limits that it will no longer be pos- 

 sible to conduct commercial fishing operations in certain parts of the 

 North Sea. 



This is a lady that was mildly affected. You can see her going 

 through this test trying to touch the finger of the doctor. You can 

 see that she does it with some difficulty. 



The lady recovered. This woman, as I recall, was involved in eating 

 fish. Again, these are commercial fish species that are consumed and 

 sold in the local markets there in Japan. 



In the next case, which I think is one of the worst, the man that you 

 see in bed did not recover. You will notice that there has been a com- 

 plete muscular wasting. This victim died shortly after the picture was 

 made, and you will observe what takes place when he drinks just a 

 few spoonsful of milk. 



He undergoes a very severe diaphragmatic spasm and at times 

 violent convulsions. 



May we have the projector off and the lights back on, please? 



Mr. Chairman, I showed these pictures for the purpose of trying to 

 give you a visual concept of the definition of biomedical oceanography, 

 and if I may, I would like to comment on some of the other points in 

 my presentation which I believe are important to your committee. 



