424 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL XVIII, October 1964 
merged barrier reef, living coral, sandy areas, 
and a fringing reef flat that dries out at low- 
water springs. During normal weather condi- 
tions seas are slight on these reefs, but at times 
of westerly gales heavy surf develops. A very 
strong current sweeps out over the toxic area 
from the lagoon during the ebbing tide. 
It is not known when poisonous fish first ap- 
peared on Tarawa. According to Gilbertese tradi- 
tion, Betio was notorious for being the place 
where strangers dare not eat fish for fear of 
being poisoned. Among the old people the idea 
is held that toxic fish always have been, and 
always will be, found on this reef — it is part 
of the natural order of things. However the 
war, with the resultant increase in shipping, 
bombs, wrecks, rubbish, and surplus war material 
dumped on the reef, is blamed for the violent in- 
crease in toxicity in the late forties and early 
fifties. 
There still remains about Betio much of the 
wreckage of the invasion of 1943, but these 
wrecks are not well correlated with the toxic 
areas. Thus landing craft left stranded, now 
rusted out and disintegrating, are present not 
only on the toxic reef flat but also on the edges 
of the inshore reefs all along the lagoon side of 
the island. Other war wreckage may be found 
in the deeper parts of the toxic section of the 
lagoon, but is also found in the nontoxic areas. 
2JL 
20 ' 
Fig. 5. Map of Abemama. 
