Daily Logs - Bikini - Enewetak - Rongelap Field Survey July 27, 1964 - September 5, 1964

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Laboratory of Radiation Biology University of Washington BIKINI - ENIWETOK - RONGELAP FIELD SURVEY Operated by the University of Washington under Contract No. AT(45-1)1385 with the United States Atomic Energy Commission.

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This volume contains daily reports written in the field by scientists from the University of Washington Laboratory of Radiation Biology during the 1964 expedition to Eniwetok, Bikini and Rongelap Atolls. The unedited reports contain information submitted each day by members of the party to Dr. Lauren R. Donaldson, Laboratory Director. Interpretations The purpose of the daily reports was to crest@ an on- . the-spot record of observations and impressions. Expedition participants, whose work is represented in these reports, were Laboratory of Radiation Biology, University of Washington Lauren R. Donaldson - fish, radiation studies Ralph F. Palumbo - plants, II II Gary Lewis - oceanographer, II II Hill Williams - historian College of Forestry, University of Washington Office of News Services, University of Washington

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Frank Lowman.-birds and marine radioecology BOwllng Green State University Division of Biology and Medicine, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Arnold Joseph -official representative of the AEC

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Personnel: Donaldson, Palumbo, Picked up McClin, Lewis & Billings and drove to the airport for a 0900 departure on Pan Am for Hono. Uet Palumbo & Welander at the airport. Bill of $71.20 for 40 K. of excess baggage handled on a field order signed by Maxine. Arrived in Hono. tive and Keith Allsup, Went direct to A.. 1155 and were met by A.E.C. H & N who had just arrived on Pan Am helped us get started through the paper mill. Found our freight had arrived but had not been delivered from the ship. H&N were to pick it up and get it booked on the next flight. It is obvious that PMR or--someone has not passed the word along the line that we have any priority for all the seats on the plane due out Wed. morning have been assigned to others. McCurtain and his associates in A.E.C. spent the day begging seats wherever they could-- finally they were able to come up with eight (8) spaces --but no assurance that the fright would Stayed at the Waikikian Hotel.

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Donaldson, Palumbo, Welander, Lewis, Billings, McClin left Seattle by PAA for Honolulu at 0930. Arrived Honolulu at 12:10 and Virgil Simpson, AEC Honolulu, Group taken to AEC HQ. 544 Ohohio St. for travel orders, ~D badges for foward area, and to check on baggage and other items relating to the trip. Bob McCurtain, AEC Security very helpful in getting us checked in and “squared away.” Checked in at the Waikikian Hotel,

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Date: 28 July 1964, Tuesday - Same personnel nn,. Rented car and drove to Univ. will be at the lab for a few days, some support is availabl of Hawaii to pay visit to EMBL, Eniwetok. Hiatt leaving Honolulu Aug. 2. e at Eniwetok, but not much. Then visited POFI - Jack Morris on a Guggenheim fellowship in England and Mr. Sprague is acting Director. Heard that wife and four children were involved in an auto accident on the Pali Road-- two of the children were killed. Did not see . The Gilbert is out on a survey. The new ship, , the Cromwell, was also out’on an oceanographic survey--Dr. Seckel asked us to drop by on our way back for a seminar on our work in the islands. traced it to Damon Tract and upon request of the H&N warehouse manager, marked 2400# of baggage to hold because all our baggage might not go on the plane with us on the morrow. llr. Donaldson placed a call to the lab and talked with Paul Olson about various things including: directions to Stan Gessel to facilitate his passage through Honolulu; reservations at the Waikikian; all travelers to contact Bob McCurtain immediately upon arriving in Honolulu; extension of our plant

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Locality: Honolulu Date: July 28, 1964 Personnel: Donaldson, Palumbo, Welander, McClin, Lewis, Billings, Allsup, and Weather: Fair. John Koranda from L.R.L. needs, transformers, etc. Rented a car from Avis and went to the University for a visit with Vice Pres. Robt. Hiatt, exchanged chitchat, etc. Then to POFI where we found Jack Marr had gol~c England on a fellowship. had a very bad accident that killed two of his children and put his wife and two remaining children in the hospital. Went to A.E.C. to pick up movement of the freight. Some freight and after much phoning travel orders and to check on the questions about space for the it was decided that we would have to split the load and take a portion with us and the balance would be flown’out on the next flight--Sunday. Palumbo and I went through all the decisions as to which should be held for later shipment. the packing lists making loaded and which should be Phoned LRB at 1450 and talked to Paul and Joan--be sure and pass the word on each subsequent person sent out with exact schedule so orders can be cut--and space booked. Send info to Robt. McCurtain AEC Hono.

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quarantine permit; and the baggage problem. Joan Catoni also was on the line. Contact: Bob McCurtain, AEC

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Locality: Hono & westward. Date: July 29, 1964 Personnel: Palumbo, Welander, McClin, Billings, Lewis & Koranda. Allsup Weather: Fair. and Donaldson in Hono. Called at 0400 for a 0500 pick up with departure scheduled for 0700. Arrived at Hickam check in baggage had a bite of breakfast and Allsup & Palumbo went to check on amount of freight that had been loaded-- found that none of our freight was aboard. After a hurried check of possibilities it was decided that Donaldson & Allsup stay in Hono and battle the “paper mill” and the rest go on and get set up at Eniwetok as fast . as they could. Left at 0730--with our clothes, etc. Allsup and Donaldson started making the rounds--found that Whalen--asst. MATS traffic manager had pulled our freight off the flight --after it had been scheduled--’’because we had ~ to put people or freight on the flight. Went to A.E.C. and got a copy of USAC Berkeley, Calif. to Commander Pacific Missile Range Point Mugu, Calif. P2321OOZ with info to Pacmisran Liaison Officer Hickam, etc. , etc. ~ action had been taken on the request by any Navy or PMR agency. Called Ernie Campbell to call Cdr. Graves, Pt. Mugu to try and get some action. Kept the pressure on every contact we could find during the

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day by late evening Mr. F. Tim P.M.R. air cargo promised to get our freight out on a flight leaving at 0220 July 30 --will have to wait and see.

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Locality: H’ono. Date: July 30, 1964 - Personnel: Donaldson & Allsup Day spent in trying to get some action on transportation. Our efforts of yesterday had some results; every agency on the Island is becoming aware of our transportation needs. During the night P.M.R. cargo dept. loaded our freight on a 127 and started it on west. The flight departed at 0400--30 July. Should reach Kwaj during the day and Eniwetok by dark--we hope. Sent a TWX to Ralph telling of the cargo flight and alerting (14th Naval District) to try and get space reserved for Sunday’s A.M. departure for the seven of us. Sure like begging money for the starving heathens--finally got a promise--that 14th Naval Dist. would give 7 Sunday morning.’ Hope we have I swear I’ll never go on seats on the flight to us for no hitches from now on. another expedition unless the H & N provided transportation today by truck, station wagon, etc. They try to be helpful but are limited in their efforts because the Navy at Pt. Mugu has never been verY realistic in setting up an operational plan.

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Locality: Hgno. Date: July 31, 1964. Personnel: Donaldson & Allsup, Bonham, Lowman, Sneddon & Weather: Showers. Picked up a Hertz car and drove to A.E.C. office to continue to work on seats on Sunday P.M.R. flight. By begging and urging we were able to get 4 increased to 6 and finally to seven: cost-- 10 cups of coffee. With Bud Bascom driving a H & N car and we in the Hertz car we went to meet Pan Am flight from Seattle. Flight one hour Bonham, Lowman, Sneddon & Williams--no Held--were taken to A.E.C. office for check in, get travel orders. Then out to Hickam to check extra gear and make the rounds again to check on seats and cancel the now extra one requested for Held. Picked up request for permission to stop at Johnston Island and also TWX of authority to enter Johnston Island. Request is for Palumbo, Held, Gessel, Joseph and Donaldson to visit Aug. 31-Sept. 5 t dependent upon transportation. Sneddon tried out film speed and checked with Kodak on

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To lab and conference with the people there re space and support requirements. Went to O in CE office to see Cmdr. Kennedy, but he was not in because of some all nite operations--which we missed. We were told to contact Mr. Scougal of Global who is to assist us with our program requirements. He came to the lab and laid out the facilities available on the island. It appears that the helicopter is grounded and that the 2-20 will be available requirements can be met within reason and if a 24-hour notice -is and 48 hours for “T’’-boats. held to decide how we can best carry out our program and the following schedule has been set up and Date Site Objectives Clean up lab and prepare for Collection and observations - fish, Coenobita, plants, sea plankton, tree cores, Birqus Process samples from Glenn Launch as for Glenn Conference with new arrivals and unpacking baggage and setting up program and equipment

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Checked in at Sick Bay as requested and were qiven shots also registered with Security. Rest of day spent going through lockers, trunks, shelves, etc. to clear out old, unusable gear; cleaning the place up and trying to assemble sample collecting items for the Glenn

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Personnel: Bonham, Lowman, Visited University of Hawaii to get bird books, note books, etc. Went to Bishop Museum to study birds, corals, fish, etc. Tried to visit Dr. Bryant but found he was out of Did last minute shopping, drove up to the Pali spent a Hope nothing has happened to our Plane reservations- .

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Aug. 1, 1964. Same personnel. 8:45 A.M. Went ashore with gear on truck. Collected soils, land plants, algae, fish and invertebrates. Fish were collected in a shallow pool just inside the outer General appearance appeared to be normal with lush growth of vegetation in healthy condition, lots of fish and invertebrates around the island, many birds--sooty, fairy terns and , 2 species of shore birds. The sooty terns were nesting near . shore in some numbers with eggs and young in several stages of development . Very good opportunity for photos of nests and young. (See Palumbo’s notes for details on vegetation.) Many Coenobita, shore crabs and coconut crabs here. Left for Fred about 4:10 P.M. and arrived about 5 P.M. Aug. 2. Sunday. Same personnel. Processed samples from Igurin. Plane with six people arrived 1720--but none of ours--

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Personnel: Donaldson, Allsup, Bonham, Lowman, Sneddon, Called at 0345 and dressed for 0430 pick up. H & N called for us in two cars. At Hickam checked in to P.M.R. flight #27. Started the day with a hassel with the passenger checkers who tried to tell us we couldn’t check cameras, etc. as personnel gear. After a sharp round they backed down and we got our total pile checked in. Flight left at 0730, stopped at Johnston for 1 hour. Security confines everyone to the one small waiting room. Arrived Kwaj 3:20 P.M. and went to the base store for a few items. Flight delayed until 7:00 P.M because of engine Arrived at Eniwetok at 8:30 P.M. with Ralph and Raul at the terminal with trucks and Jeeps to move the gear and personVisited E.M.B.L., checked in for bunks, made beds, etc. in preparation for staying awhile. Dr. Robt. Hiatt came out on the plane with us with three

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Left Fred at 0800 for Japtan (David). Drove around island to select sampling stations. General appearance of island one of disturbed habitats. Coconut plantation disrupted by buildings and large areas demanded to make room for buildings, antennas and other equipment throughout most of the island. Only a few small “virgin” forests remain, these composed of the seaward side next to the associations and located near deep entrance. Before lunch, made ‘ collections of soil and plants and others surveyed reef for fish collecting. Raul McClin made ganuna surveys with picker lab monitor at 3 feet-- readings variable from 200-600 c/m t 50 c/m at each reading (?). Background not determined yet (?). Lunch at 11:30 at mess hall here on Japtan. After lunch poisoned at northeast side of island in fast flowing water about 150 yds. from Nickajack trail. Collected 1 1/2 fish: Welander and Murchison (U. Hawaii) and Palumbo each placed 1 gallon fish poison in cubitainer on bottom--2 to 4 feet of water. Tide and currents too strong-- Palumbo and Billings to reef edge for algae collection-- footing difficult and tide too strong to swim--algal population very sparse from shore to reef edge, a distance of 300 yds. Collected a few species for identi-

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fication and only two for analysis. Did not get to reef edge because of heavy surf. from pier; drifted net Lewis and Murchison collected plankton for 1 hour-- poor collection resulted. A poor day all around except for the plant collection and soil pit (#3) samples. Also collected 3 sea cucumbers in algae collection area and 4 coenobitas at southern end of island in lagoon near pier. Arrived Fred at 4:20. Put samples away . for later processing and to clean UP for dinner at 5:30-6:30 p.M=. After supper to lab to work up plant samples while waiting for the second group to arrive from Honolulu. Bonham; Keith Allsup, H & N Las Vegas; Hill Williams and Jim Sneddon, U.W. Billeted in same barracks as rest of group. Retired at a late hour after reviewing events to date.

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Locality: Eniwetok Atoll Date: Aug. 4, 1964 - Tues. Personnel: Palumbo, Sneddon, Bonham, McClin, Williams, Allsup, Welander, Lowman, Lewis, Billings, Donaldson, Started the morning with a group conference where all hands were invited to make suggestions and comments on operational schedules. Ralph brought the newcomers up-to-date on reports of local import. Palumbo, Allsup and Donaldson called on Commander C.L. Kennedy who offered every assistance available to him. Cdr. Kennedy introduced us to Mr. Serafino, Resident Manager for Global Associates, who also offered every assistance. For support we are to deal with Mr. H.D. Scougal, manager for Maintenance All new arrivals had to check at Hospital for cholera shots. Security Dept. was contacted permission to use the shotgun for collecting birds. He even produced the riot gun left from previous expeditions. …