Mother Nature is still more powerful than mankind and all 
the atomic bombs or weapons man can devise, Vernon Brock, 
Territorial director of the division of fish and game, said on 
his recent return from the world’s most famous ocean-dot, 
Bikini Atoll. Mr. Brock, who acted as collaborator for the 
U. S. fish and wildlife service in 
this summer’s expedition to 
probe Bikini “a year after” left 
San Diego on the USS Chilton, 
the re-survey headquarters snip, 
July 1 and spen. six weeks 
on 
collecting fish and marine life 
specimens from the lagoon for a 
study of radioactive after-effects 
on the denizens of the deep. 
* * * 
THREE BASIC “highlights” of 
the survey’s work were listed by 
Mr. Brock as: 
1. No basic changes in any types 
of fish were found. Any radical 
mutation or genealogical after¬ 
maths, Mr. Brock pointed out, 
have apparently been dissapated 
by the past year and the “rule 
of the life in the ocean. . , sur¬ 
vival of the fittest.” However, 
mutations* if any, would proba¬ 
bly not show up until the second 
or third generations of fish life 
(a year from now), Mr. Brock 
observed. 
2 . Some radioactive fish were 
found and many were presuma¬ 
bly present in the lagoon itself as 
the navy strictly prohibited eat¬ 
ing of any fish caught in the vi¬ 
cinity of the lagoon. 
Radioactivity found in fish 
from the area was “not high,’* 
Mr.' Brock said, and most of the 
high concentrations of radioactiv¬ 
ity seemed to be in the bottom 
of the lagoon where the under¬ 
water bomb (Baker test) was 
set off. This explosion looses 
extensive deposits of plutonium 
which settled in seaweed and 
coral on the bottom and which 
is still highly-radioactive. 
3 . An item of interest to local 
fishing sampans which have re¬ 
cently been probing further and 
further into the far Pacific, Mr. 
Brock said, was the great 
schools of live bait almost con¬ 
stantly observed in the Bikini 
area. 
THE PRIMARY purpose of 
Mr. Brock’s observations was to 
study the fish populations to see 
what changes — a decrease in 
numbers or changes in species 
ratios—had occurred. 
A powerful fish poison was 
in the water in this testing, Mr. 
Brock explained, and the dead 
fish were carefully picked up, 
after the poison had worked, to 
be catalogued and studied. Oth¬ 
er studies were made of palegic 
life—open-sea fish, such as tuna, 
swordfish and sharks. 
The group headed by Mr. 
Brock has approximately 6,000 
fish specimens in pickled prep¬ 
arations aboard the Chilton, be¬ 
sides coconut crabs, marine in- 
vertabrates, shells, seaweed, 
coral specimens and insects. 
FOR THE SOFT-SPOKEN Ter¬ 
ritorial official, perhaps the big¬ 
gest thrill of the entire s i x- 
weeks expedition came the day 
that he harpooned a 100-pound 
manta ray — one ol the most 
treacherous and dangerous kill¬ 
ers of the ocean. #‘However, 
mine was nothing compared to 
an 800-pounder, which measured 
10 feet across, taken by other 
members of the Chilton party,” 
he declared. 
About the only “souvenir” Mr. 
Brock brought back is a glum- 
looking, dour-dispositioned 
hawksbill turtle, named A-Bomb. 
“A-Bomb was the only turtle 
taken, as far as I know, during 
either of the two Bikini trips,” 
Mr. Brock said, “and, while he 
may have a mildly-radioactive 
liver or something like that, 
seems to be in good shape to suc¬ 
cessfully make the transition 
from the beach of Bikini to the 
famed sands of Waikiki.” 
‘A-BOMB,’ A REAL ‘SHELLBACK’—Here’s one armor-plated 
“target” which not only survived two atom bombings, but who shut 
out deadly radioactive elements well enough to be able to frisk 
merrily along the shores of Bikini Atoll a year after being bombed 
and exposed to the killing plutonium in the waters of Bikini. 
“A-Bomb,” held here by his owner, Vernon Brock of the terri¬ 
torial fish and game division, was found by Mr. Brock during this 
summer’s re-survey expedition to Bikini. (Advertiser photo.) 
