That is a great story, nadinsita. We're finding that when it comes to radiation, even the Pacific Ocean ain't big enough.
Oh well, there's the bright side. That Stanford researcher found the nuclear tuna helps us better track their migration, which is good.
NUCLEAR TUNA
Traces of Fukushima radiation help scientists track Pacific bluefin migration.
By Kera Abraham
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Pacific bluefin tuna that swam off the Japanese coast after the 2011 nuclear meltdown carry radioactive memorabilia of the Fukushima disaster. That’s the splashy news out of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove.
But fear of nuclear seafood is not the point, according to doctoral student and study lead Daniel Madigan; the radiation level is so low it’s not really a health concern. More importantly, the glimmers of cesium-137 and cesium-134 in bluefin flesh help scientists map their movement. And that could be key to more sustainable management.
Pacific bluefin are down about 96 percent from their historic population levels, according to a December stock assessment. “It’s still on our ‘avoid’ list,” says Alison Barratt, spokeswoman for the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. “The stock is doing really badly.”
Madigan sampled young bluefin bycatch a few months after the meltdowns of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors. Because Pacific bluefin only spawn near Japan, he wondered if these 1 – to 2-year-old fish carried contaminants from the accident. Madigan sent 15 samples to a marine radioactivity expert at Stony Brook University.
“He called me after the first (sample) and was like, ‘You’re not going to believe it, but they’re carrying the cesium from Fukushima,’” Madigan recalls.
CONTINUED...
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/news/2013/mar/14/nuclear-tuna/
Don't want to meltdown anybody's personal copy of CRACKED, but blogger-fueled
Palo Alto Patch had the new a week earlier.
Hmmm. Maybe it's because the Montery County Weekly is a...weekly!
= new reply since forum marked as read