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Longfin Bannerfish, Marshall Islands, 1996

Longfin Bannerfish swim near a reef off Rongelap Atoll. The islands were contaminated by a nuclear weapons test on nearby Bikini Atoll in 1954.

The radioactive fallout caused abnormal births, thyroid problems, and other illnesses among Rongelap's inhabitants. But the coral reefs and other aquatic life around Rongelap bear no visible scars from the radiation.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Testing the Waters of Rongelap," April 1998, National Geographic magazine)

Photograph by Emory Kristof