BajaNomad

Pacific fish tested for radiation

Kgryfon - 1-20-2014 at 08:35 PM

A short while back there was some discussion (in the thread about the Siamese twin whales) about radiation in the fish population due to the nuclear disaster in Japan. Ran across this article about independent testing and the results:

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/allyoucaneat/2014/01/20/fisher...

Thought some might find it interesting...

woody with a view - 1-20-2014 at 08:49 PM

i'm not gonna live forever, but i'm gonna keep eating fresh caught fish at least that long!

Mulegena - 1-20-2014 at 09:12 PM

Good to know.
Thank you very much for the sharing of information.
There is a link within the article to the independent study, if you wish to read further.

vgabndo - 1-21-2014 at 08:37 AM

Reading between the lines...what reason could there be for the US government to NOT have information on the safety of fish from the Pacific Ocean? Why does a private citizen have to pay for the testing?
...except maybe because that way we can trust the truth of the results.

These data ARE encouraging.

Now could we please get a little good news about acidification!:no:

Kgryfon - 1-21-2014 at 05:14 PM

vgabundo, I think you have hit the nail on the head. They just wanted to be able to look their customers in the face and say "WE tested our fish and these are the results." Not that the government would ever skew or misrepresent test results...

redhilltown - 1-23-2014 at 12:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by woody with a view
i'm not gonna live forever, but i'm gonna keep eating fresh caught fish at least that long!


Bravo!!!!!!!:tumble::tumble::tumble:

Ateo - 1-23-2014 at 08:40 AM

Radiation detected off the U.S. West Coast from the ***ushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan has declined since the 2011 tsunami disaster and never approached levels that could pose a risk to human health, seafood or wildlife, scientists say.

Experts have been trying to dispel worries stemming from a burst of online videos and blog posts in recent months that contend radiation from ***ushima is contaminating beaches and seafood and harming sea creatures across the Pacific.

Those assertions are false and the concerns largely unfounded, scientists and government officials said last week, because ***ushima radionuclides in ocean water and marine life are at trace levels and declining — so low that they are trivial compared with what already exists in nature.

“There is no public health risk at California beaches due to radioactivity related to events at ***ushima,” the California Department of Public Health said in a statement.

Concentrations of radioactive cesium from the nuclear plant that were detected in the tissue of bluefin tuna, which migrate from waters near Japan across the Pacific to the coast of California and Mexico, were very low to begin with and have been falling since 2011, said Nicholas Fisher, a professor of marine science at Stony Brook University.

“The dose is measurable but it’s extremely low,” said Fisher, an expert on marine radioactivity.

Even at its worst in the months after the disaster, the dose of radioactivity that Fisher’s lab found in tuna caught off California was far lower than what people are exposed to from medical X-rays or eating bananas or other potassium-rich foods, which contain naturally occurring radioactive isotopes.

The latest concerns are mostly driven by online videos, blogs and social media — including a post titled “28 Signs That the West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From ***ushima.” A video posted on YouTube last month shows an unidentified man with a Geiger counter detecting elevated radiation levels on a beach in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, and has received more than 650,000 views.

The California Department of Public Health sent inspectors to the beach shown in the video, and their tests found similarly elevated radiation levels. But their analysis indicates they are naturally occurring — probably from minerals in the sand — and not associated with ***ushima.

Kim Martini, an oceanographer at the University of Washington, noticed a surge in outrageous worries about radiation in Seattle last fall, including people who were afraid to go to the beach and stopped eating seafood.

“Every single environmental issue was being blamed on ***ushima,” she said. “And I thought there’s no way that can be true.”

Since then she and other scientists have been posting information on the blog Deep Sea News, with posts including “Is the sea floor littered with dead animals due to radiation? No.”

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan on March 11, 2011, triggered a series of tsunamis that crippled the ***ushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, releasing radiation into the ocean and atmosphere. Studies show that leaks from the facility continue to send radionuclides into the sea. But they dilute quickly in ocean water, scientists say.

Once those contaminants disperse across the Pacific Ocean and reach the West Coast, their concentration will be many thousands of times lower and not of concern, according to an online FAQ by Ken Buesseler, a marine scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.



Read more: http://fox5sandiego.com/2014/01/13/west-coast-radiation-from...

Don't worry about the Fish.

MrBillM - 1-24-2014 at 08:55 PM

Unless you season it with Fluoridated-Salt.

Sweetwater - 1-25-2014 at 10:38 AM

Quote:

“The dose is measurable but it’s extremely low,” said Fisher, an expert on marine radioactivity. Even at its worst in the months after the disaster, the dose of radioactivity that Fisher’s lab found in tuna caught off California was far lower than what people are exposed to from medical X-rays or eating bananas or other potassium-rich foods, which contain naturally occurring radioactive isotopes.


While accurate, this is very misleading. Naturally occurring radionucleotides are still dangerous to biological organisms such as humans. The nucleotides from ***isima that are of biological concern are the Iodine (short half life but very active biologically), Cesium and particularly the Strontium. Neither of the Cesium radionucleotides existed on our planet prior to mans experimentation with nuclear blasts. We are solely responsible for introducing them to the environment. If you are unfortunate and ingest some of the Strontium, it will be taken up by your bone and never excreted. That's a ticking bomb for your individual biology no matter what dose is in the background. Most press releases like this count on dilution to somehow safeguard the population. How long do you think dilution will work? The planet is not recycling radiation nor radionucleotides, many of them like the Cs and St have very long half lives and once introduced, will be here for generations to come. I've got experience in this field and the above are facts, not conjecture. But you are welcome to believe whatever you choose, the facts remain.

Not in our backyard

durrelllrobert - 1-25-2014 at 11:04 AM

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents‎

Benjamin K. Sovacool has reported that worldwide there have been 99 accidents at nuclear power plants.[7] Fifty-seven accidents have occurred since the Chernobyl disaster, and 57% (56 out of 99) of all nuclear-related accidents have occurred in the USA.[7]

Serious nuclear power plant accidents include the ***ushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011), Chernobyl disaster (1986), Three Mile Island accident (1979), and the SL-1 accident (1961).[8]

Nuclear advocate Stuart Arm maintains that, "apart from Chernobyl, no nuclear workers or members of the public have ever died as a result of exposure to radiation due to a commercial nuclear reactor incident."[9]

Sweetwater - 1-25-2014 at 11:29 AM

I'm laughing out loud and totally skeptical of a nuclear advocate quoted on Wiki as a good source of information. Particularly since facts are available.

NO radiation is safe. It all has risk associated with exposure whether it's radionucleotides or sunshine. The deaths of ***ushima workers is well documented and it's still in the early stages. The spike in their childrens thyroid cancers is well documented already.

I'd encourage you to think of radiation like an STD. Some of the exposure might be curable, some treatable and some is a lifetime sentence. But you are certainly able to decide for yourself if you'd like to risk that exposure.

Staying Safe from Radiation ................

MrBillM - 1-26-2014 at 08:18 AM

Stay Indoors.

Out of the Mountains.

Don't Eat Bananas.

OR, Maybe best of all, quit watching or reading Doomsday News ?

Accept two-headed Kids as just another group of Transgenders ?

blackwolfmt - 1-26-2014 at 05:31 PM

Good thing you stopped when you did Mrbill I almost lost it with that last 1:o

Hook - 1-26-2014 at 07:30 PM

Well, this is disturbing.

I'm not sure how I'll react when a surfer along Baja sez, "....killer surf, eh dude?"