The Rebirth of Bikini Atoll

How the islands bounced back after years of nuclear testing

Art by Veronica Cruz

By Alicia Szczesniak

The home of fictional cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants is Bikini Bottom, a town under the ocean waves filled with quirky characters and a variety of sea life. However, during the creation of the show, showrunner and marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg decided to base the town on an actual location: Bikini Atoll.

Deep in the massive expanse of the Pacific Ocean lies Bikini Atoll. The atoll consists of 23 islands encircling a large lagoon ringed with coral reefs. At first glance, it could be mistaken for an untouched tropical paradise, with crystal blue water and palm trees billowing in a sea breeze. But, not all is as it seems. Between 1946 and 1958, 23 U.S. nuclear weapons tests were carried out, severely damaging the environment. Additionally, all 167 inhabitants were removed and relocated to other islands. However, many would starve from a lack of food in their new homes. In 1970, many inhabitants were taken back to the island, but would soon be removed again in 1978. 

According to an article written by Dr. Holly Barker, professor at the University of Washington and commissioner for the National Nuclear Commission of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, this is because the inhabitants “were found to have ingested more radioactive cesium from the environment than any known human population”

If these people were this irradiated after just eight years living on the island twelve years after the tests stopped, then surely the environment must have been irreversibly damaged to the point of no return, right?

Not really.

In fact, when researchers visited Bikini Atoll in 2017, they were astonished to find that the environment was in fantastic shape. Instead of seeing the decomposing bodies of animals who got too close and stayed too long or hollow skeletons of long-dead coral, they found a thriving marine ecosystem. 

Even within the crater left by the bombs, massive amounts of coral were found. Researchers then began to sequence the DNA of these corals to find out how they managed to survive, in hopes to find a genetic component that may tell them more about how reefs avoid developing cancer from the radiation. This could then help humans in the fight against cancer.

Dr. Michael Webster, executive director of the Coral Reef Alliance, also theorized that the coral’s resilience may be due to minimal human contact since the bombs dropped. After the people working with the bombs left the atoll, it became a sort of preserve that no one was allowed to go near. While this was mostly due to the extremely high levels of radiation, it inadvertently prevented humans from damaging the environment further, be it through usage of harmful substances that leaked into the water, raising the sea surface temperature, or any number of things. This then allowed the coral to grow back as healthy as ever. 

But it wasn’t just coral that bounced back after the nuclear blast. Oddly enough, animals in and around the atoll seemed to be thriving as well.

Coconut crabs were also found around the atoll. The crabs can grow up to 40 inches wide and weigh up to ten pounds, and have been seen feasting on the coconuts that grow around the islands. The twist? The coconuts are growing from trees that have grown from radioactive soil, making the coconuts themselves radioactive. 

Sharks have also been spotted swimming near the atoll as well. However, some of these sharks seemed to not have a second dorsal fin, raising the question of if these sharks were mutated from the radiation. 

Bikini Atoll is still considered unsafe for humans to live on for extended periods of time. The seafood is unsafe to collect and the plants are radioactive. However, the atoll has bounced back more than anyone thought that it could, leaving several questions in the minds of researchers as they examine what occurred in the seven decades since the nuclear tests. 

Wanna chat? Email Alicia at as589820@ohio.edu, or follow her on instagram @alicia_szcz