In 3 weeks of final work after Test Baker, the Bikini scientific teams
took from the islands and the lagoon many hundreds of samples of plants,
corals, crabs, fish, plankton, and water. They noted that radioactivity
was present in all samples taken from every part of the atoll, which
indicated an early uptake of radionuclides by the biota[9] and suggested
that there was a continuing circulation of radioactive debris in the
water. They took samples of fish in the open ocean outside the atoll and
made comparative collections at other atolls. The instruments and
techniques for analyzing radioactivity were far from refined, but all
available evidence pointed to the need for more particular efforts to
examine radiobiological results.