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“Absolutely Every One” – 15 Out of 15 – Bluefin Tuna Tested In California Waters Contaminated with Fukushima Radiation
We noted more than a year ago:
The ocean currents head from Japan to the West Coast of the U.S.
***
Of course, fish don’t necessarily stay still, either. For example, the Telegraph notes that scientists tagged a bluefin tuna and found that it crossed between Japan and the West Coast three times in 600 days:
That might be extreme, but the point is that fish exposed to radiation somewhere out in the ocean might end up in U.S. waters.
And see this.
CNN reports today:
Low levels of radioactive cesium from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident turned up in fish caught off California in 2011, researchers reported Monday.
The bluefin spawn off Japan, and many migrate across the Pacific Ocean. Tissue samples taken from 15 bluefin caught in August, five months after the meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi, all contained reactor byproducts cesium-134 and cesium-137 at levels that produced radiation about 3% higher than natural background sources
The Wall Street Journal quotes the studies’ authors:
“The tuna packaged it up and brought it across the world’s largest ocean,” said marine ecologist Daniel Madigan at Stanford University, who led the study team. “We were definitely surprised to see it at all and even more surprised to see it in every one we measured.”
***
“We found that absolutely every one of them had comparable concentrations of cesium-134 and cesium-137,” said marine biologist Nicholas Fisher at Stony Brook University in New York state, who was part of the study group.
The bad news is that is is only going to get worse.
As Reuters points out:
Unlike some other compounds, radioactive cesium does not quickly sink to the sea bottom but remains dispersed in the water column, from the surface to the ocean floor.
Fish can swim right through it, ingesting it through their gills, by taking in seawater or by eating organisms that have already taken it in ….
As CNN notes:
Neither [of the scientists who tested the fish] thought they were likely to find cesium at all, they said. And since the fish tested were born about a year before the disaster, “This year’s fish are going to be really interesting,” Madigan said.
“There were fish born around the time of the accident, and those are the ones showing up in California right now,” he said. “Those have been, for the most part, swimming around in those contaminated waters their whole lives.”
In other words, the 15 fish tested were only exposed the radiation for a short time. But bluefin arriving in California now will have been exposed to the Fukushima radiation for much longer.
As KGTV San Diego explains:
The real test of how radioactivity affects tuna populations comes this summer when researchers planned to repeat the study with a larger number of samples. Bluefin tuna that journeyed last year were exposed to radiation for about a month. The upcoming travelers have been swimming in radioactive waters for a longer period. How this will affect concentrations of contamination remains to be seen.
One of the studies’ authors told the BBC:
The fish that will be arriving around now, and in the coming months, to California waters may be carrying considerably more radioactivity and if so they may possibly be a public health hazard.
Japanese and U.S. officials – of course – are pretending that the amount of radiation found in the bluefin is safe. But the overwhelming scientific consensus is that there is no safe level of radiation … and radiation consumed and taken into the body is much more dangerous than background radiation.
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I sse you haven't been around long and missed the endless discussions re: this on ZeroHedge after it happened, which included many folks who actually work(ed) in the industry. You fall into the school of Trav7777. Banana Dose analogy... good one.
Are you referring to the EPA that when confronted with growing amounts of radioactivity from Fukushima simply handled the issue by turning off radiation monitors and upping the "safe" dose that humans can handle? Don't worry, I don't listen to them.
Your post uses all past tense, "the horror show would not have happened."
The "horror show" never ended and is getting worse. SFP#4 could collapse at any time and is emitting such high radiation they can't get at it.
The fate of the industrialized world [and probably the rest of the world also] hangs in the balance of electric water pumps cooling nuclear cores and nuclear spent fuel rods. And we're concerned with terrorists????????
Those living in the 50's and 60's got their hefty doses from atmospheric nuclear test, many times worse than any Fukushima. Soviet Tsar Bomba blast wave even travelled many times around the world. Still no mass dying anywhere.
Radiation is a bitch but unless it is really strong, it will not overun the body defenses. Most people will recover from it. These small variations are meaningless. Fukushima radiation total exposure would be something like 1/100th of radiation resulting from an X-ray photo taken in a hospital.
Tim73 writes,"Radiation is a bitch but unless it is really strong, it will not overun the body defenses"
LMFAO. You're kidding right?
Have you ever bothered to look at the cancer rates of this generation compared to previous (Pre-nuclear) generations.
Thay aren't easy to find, and are often accompanied by medical and governmental qualifiers that try to minimize and/or rationalize the doubling of cancer rates over the past two generations.
Cancer in my parents and grandparents generation, at least in sheer numbers of us that succomb to it, was not the terrible scourge that besets us today.
Nobody wants to discuss or release the horrific numbers that a lifetime of cumulative exposure has wrought in so many of us. So take your pooh-poohing comments and shove them somewhere where the sun never shines, moron troll!
hootowl
This was a big debate here on ZeroHedge last year when the event happend.
The body will not recover from internal emitter cesium or strontium that has metabolized inside the body and continues to irradiate the body until death.
Internal emitters are way different than catching a dose of rays off an xray machine.
I would be worried about the impact on fish stocks. Mutations creating a few generations that cannot survive could seriously impact the fisheries already strained by over fishing. Apex fish tend to concentrate contaminants. Mercury levels are already an issue.
The author needs to distinguish between radioactivitiy and radiation and thus the title is wrong. Radiation cannot be passed on from one species to another-only unstable atomic isotopes (i.e. radioactivity) can. (The fact I had an x-ray doesn't mean you can get x-ray exposure from being close to me!) A 3% level above background radiation as stated in the article is within the error of these measurements and is certainly no radiation threat (a trip on an airline would expose you to much higher radiation levels from cosmic rays). The author needs to be quantitative: What is the Cs (Cesium) level in ppm and how does it compare to natural Cs levels in tuna? What is the uncertainty? I'd be a lot more concerned about Hg (Mercury) levels in tuna and the fact that blue fin is an endangered species due to overfishing. And, the lack of correct application of the scientific method in data analysis as shown by the author.
That's my peer review of the article. Major revisions required before publication.
Your "peer review" failed at noticing the overall point of the article (which by the way is statistically, mathematically and logically valid).... but don't worry, its normal for academic zombies getting lost in details, and being completely blind to the overall picture. It happens all the time.
I'd call such folks "mathematicians" instead of scientists, if only because mathematicians equally are obsessed with details and detached from what their maths supposedly represent. BUT the problem is: This would be too generous, because a mathematician supposedly understands maths.... but the current breed of the "educated", fails at this as well (in your case, you talk about "margin of error" in a "15 out of 15"-case... and you argue as if said measurements represented current reality, when actually they represented just the beginning state of the "experiment", with us already knowing that additionaly contaminant has continued to accumulate... and thus those measurements at best being a "bottom floor" to what is the case now).
TL/DR: Peer fail.
No tuna casserole, no tuna melts, no tunafish sammiches..
damn,
I wonder when the fallout starts affecting all the fruit and vegetables grown in California? I already scrub the skin off my 'maters.
We can scratch off the gulf of mexico fisheries, how long before the poison in the guff makes its way to the Outer banks off the east coast?
Conax
"I wonder when the fallout starts affecting all the fruit and vegetables grown in California?"
Already has. Google up what has been found.
And avoid the Milk.
I was afraid of that. Time to plant my own tomatoes.
And I read about milk production some years ago. Buhh..
Never touch the stuff. Beer's safer.
My friends have noted my glowing complexion and radiant good health which I attribute to a diet high in tuna sushi and fresh japanese greens. [The tuna radiation is actually much less of a threat than usual tuna mercury levels....]
A Jap scientist says the Fuckyou radiation makes it around the globe in about 40 days. Get the link at enenews.com
http://news.techworld.com/personal-tech/3360616/radiation-detection-phon...
Pick up a radiation detecting phone.
WOW. What is really being said here is that the Earth (no arguments about global warming or anything else matter!) is at the point of being so polluted via overpopulation AND human-caused disasters that there is a REAL problem. Isolated, maybe each one doesn't count for much in a very big planet; together, they create a real mess. India...as I understand it...has no fresh water to speak of. China, a giant mess: all that factory work created giants heaps of landfill garbage that are generally hidden to "save face." A book which has no precedent and no equal is Frank Dikotter's Mao's Great Famine. It is the book by which I live my life. Why so? Because in the book Mr. Dikotter...the Paul Revere of our day...denotes expansively and with specificity the quicksand of social/communism. Above all, social/communism is about feeding the masses disinformation and God help any who disagree with it. I suggest to one and all, read Mr. Dikotter and ask yourself: Where be the endgame of the social/communist takeover of America?
Why do I so highly recommend this book of Mr. Dikotter's? As one with a developed...academic and theoretic...interest in social structures and infrastructure...Mr. Dikotter...with the greatest of modesty, in fact, without any seeming self-interest, contemporary self-indulgence and self-aggrandizing...brings us a complete picture of what a social/societal/financial collapse is when all that matters is "the numbers". In social/communism, jiggering is done with a moment's notice and to the end that the politic of the "elite" wish. These elites are not the 1% so decried, but rather those who because they are unable by virtue of talent and work to Become the 1%, subsume the capital of motivation via legislation. Everyone Shall be equal but them, see: Nancy Pelosi as prime example number 1.
As we move into Mr. Oboma's next four years, or possibly Hillary Clinton's as Mr. Oboma becomes subject to ever more scrutiny over his birth place (I for one believe it to be anyplace but Hawaii), we see that the so-called Republicans (for there have been no Republicans since Mr. Reagan was President) are ceding the next election realizing that the economy is in a tailspin and shall let it simply fall to its knees having made the "choice" or presenting a completely unelectable nincompoop by name of Romney. Coming from the overtly racist Mormons of whom Romney was a pay, pray, and obey member~until the late 70s when Jimmy Carter demanded the "equal" treatment of the four black Americans who were Mormons by threatening to withdraw the "religious" tax deduction, polygamous in name and doctrine (they've never refutiated polygamy; simply temporarily abstained due to US law and the desire to have Utah become a state; polygamy is STILL on Mormon policy as doctrine for the men); and name one other state which discriminates so Completely against all others than Utah (and Idaho but it doesn't get the mention yet). Utah is where you can't get hired and are socially ostracized if you are non-Mormon. This Should be exhibit one from the Democrats but not yet...hmm...
Regardless, and again, read Mr. Dikotter...the ONLY reason his book has not received a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer Prize and whatever other prizes are awarded for such phenomenal achievement in the literary, is because it is too honest and we see "the writing on the wall." We ARE Mao's Great Famine before the Famine. Very scary. We have 50% of the population receiving food stamps, financial "aid" via direct deposits and college "grants", et al, and disability in order to keep the hording Morlock/Zombies from eating their own and you. The assault on the 1% is irrelevant. They have enough money to go anywhere and dig in. The rest of you trying to make a living...live in fear. Live in fear because Mr. Dikotter knows and if you read his book you too shall know. Disclaimer: I have no personal or financial interest in Mr. Dikotter's book. Nor have I ever had the pleasure of meeting him. His book and my Bible sit on the nightstand as Destruction and Redemption bookends.
But the truth of the matter is the earth is fine, it 's been so for billions of years in spite of supervolcanoes, lava oceans,etc.and now gulf pollution and Fukushima, etc.
It is the transient passengers that are in deep shit!!!
kumquatsunite
Can you be my agent too?
Great post, and thanks for keeping everyone current on this subject, GW.
While this rant may not appear connected, the energy industry is highly interlocked, with GE being an historically Morgan company.
Timeline: The Great Masquerade
1911
US Supreme Court orders Rockefeller’s oil monopoly, Standard Oil, to be dissolved over the next few years. During the formation of the new companies, majority stock ownership is shifted to the Rockefeller foundations.
1913
US Congress passes four pieces of crucial legislation (with the aid of a Rockefeller son-in-law in the US Senate):
The Federal Reserve Act
Amendment to establish the federal income tax to pay the interest owed on those loans from the Federal Reserve to the US Treasury.
Oil depletion allowance
Financial structure of foundations (creating their tax exempt status and format allowing for sheltering – or hiding – ownership and wealth)
Thus Rockefeller – and other super-rich – can continue their monopoly ownership through foundations and charitable trusts.
1918
Oil depletion allowance increased
1919
Gulf Oil, owned by the Mellon family, will enjoy an oil depletion allowance that year which was 449% larger than its net income.
1920s
Oil depletion allowance again increased several more times (during two administrations, Coolidge and Hoover, when Andrew Mellon is US Treasury Secretary).
1961
President Kennedy confers with Representative Wright Patman, a populist, who convenes a committee to investigate foundations and charitable trusts.
1962
In October of this year, President Kennedy persuades Congress to pass legislation removing the distinction between repatriated profits and profits reinvested abroad, aimed at the oil companies and that oil depletion allowance largesse.
First preliminary report from Rep. Wright Patman’s committee released this year.
1969
Tax-Exempt Foundations and Charitable Trusts: Their Impact on Our Economy
Final report from Rep. Patman’s House Select Committee on Small Business, detailing how the super-rich (Rockefeller, Morgan, Mellon, et al.) hide their monopoly ownership and wealth through foundations and charitable trusts.
[Report of the House Select Committee on Small Business, Vol. I, 1969, v.]
(1969)
A commission is formed to “study” the financial structure of foundations, but the Rockefeller family pressures to have their man, Peter G. Peterson, appointed to chair and whitewash the study --- no effective action is taken.
(Commission on Foundations and Private Philanthropy, known as the Peterson Commission)
2008
Timothy Geithner, a member of the Mellon family on the Moore side, is appointed US Treasury Secretary.
2012
Steve Coll’s book tour for his book, Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power and curiously, Coll’s clueless as to the ownership of ExxonMobil.
Coll is the president of the New America Foundation, which is funded by the Peterson Foundation, endowed by Peter G. Peterson.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKoildepletion.htm
all contained reactor byproducts cesium-134 and cesium-137 at levels that produced radiation about 3% higher than natural background sources
3% higher than normal background radiation. Oh, the humanity!!!
Chicken Little (aka George Washington) rides again. LOL
Any fish or bird that includes Japan in it's migratory pattern is going to be delivering a little bit of Fukushima with it wherever it goes. North Pacific Cod, anyone?
Is there a way to short sushi restaurants?
To be honest, I've shied away from seafood ever since BP's disaster in the Gulf.
Sushi is no longer on the menu. You can have your fish fried from the inside out. Don't like it? Order a salad.
I think I am going to pick up a portable Geiger Counter before my next sushi excursion.
Best idea I've heard today, "No one". Make sure it picks up alpha radiation. That's the one that will really kill you if it gets inside your body.
Oh grief. Be sure to stay away from all bricks in your and your neighbor's houses, and especially do not go anywhere near your in-house fire alarm.
Americium is the most common alpha emitter used commercially.
scottm said:
I think you mean UScitizenium.
It's an extremely HOT day in the neightborhood, (except on the West Coast)....Can we say Free Radicals, boys and girls?
Understanding Free Radicals and Antioxidants www.healthchecksystems.com/antioxid.htmCached - Similar You +1'd this publicly. Undo Understanding free radicals and antioxidants. Describes what free radicals are and how a diet rich in antioxidants can combat them and prevent disease.I have been highly critical of McDonalds in the past, but I must conceed that they actually do produce something.....DIABETES!....creates jobs at least. I am just waiting for their new (tuna)fish sandwich deal to start.
The only free radicals are the persistent OCCUPY movements.....
Cesium and strontium are alkaline metals, similar in chemical form to calcium. They are readily metabolized and can displace calcium in bones and teeth, meaning their radioactivity remains in any organism that metabolizes them. Biomagnification can occur, meaning that the higher in the food chain one goes and the older an organism is, the higher the body burden of these contaminants. Be aware that these metals also can be taken in by plants, particularly green leafy veggies, like kale and spinach.
The perspective that these contaminants could reach a level that would cause mass extinctions from the Fukishima accident seems way overboard, but you know, it is likely to affect the numbers of cancers and life expectancy for generations. And it appears to be the case that because there is no safe way to remove the spent fuel residing above the melting reactors, that a very large release is likely within a year or two when the reactor mass reaches the water level and steam dismantles the site.
For the knife-catchers among you, I expect that Tokyo real estate is going to go down in value very fast when this happens.
What's the half-life of Cs-134 or Cs-137? How does that compare with other potential dosage vectors, such as the potassium in your body (yes, eating a bannana "infects" you with radioactive potassium.) How much was consumed (dosage)?
Cs-134 has a half life of two years. Consequently, you don't want to ingest this just after it's produced -- lower half-life, higher risk of significant health consequences.
Cs-137 has a half-life of 30 years. Longer half life = lower risk of health consequences. Not as low as ingesting depleted uranium or Cs-135 (millions of years), but low nonetheless.
Will exposure lead to cancers? Really hard to tell, but really easy to endlessly speculate and genreate lawsuits. Due to the general lack of scientific literacy (as evidenced on this conversation thread), maybe the best place is to hide in a cave... Oh, wait, there's radiation there too... and naturally occuring.
How much do you want to bet that the millions of cans of tuna going into sandwhiches for kids doens't get tested once (might hurt profits - can't have that).
We saw this coming last year. Stocked up on tuna in the can last year.
Here is one of our people testing tuna in December 2011 to establish a reference point. The levels are just over the high of what is considered a normal background range.
A newer test will be coming soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8tOWXEgijE
.
Let's watch how the US Govt. priorities, prerogatives, and tactics here are consistent with its BP Macando response.
This has been an accident waiting to happen and more will follow either as a result of man's incompetence and greed or via mother nature's earthquakes and tsunamis. However, this time the uberwealthy who love to dine on the finest caviar, sashimi and other premium cuts of fish on a regulary basis will not be so lucky as radiation does not discriminate when mutating DNA. Let them keep consuming large quantities of their expensive treats while believing there is no harm: it may turn out to be the most efficient way to eliminate them. Yes, karma is a bitch!
What do you have against rich people in general? And what about Karma--do you believe being rich is a sin or moral weakness requiring payback in another life?
My comment was directed at the uberwealthy, i.e. the elitist, above the law, megalomaniacal psychopaths that believe they are immune from all irresponsible behavior while they rape and pillage the planet solely for ego, financial gain and more power. As far as Karma, maybe you could tell us your beliefs after choking on a mouthful of Beluga caviar and a bottle of Kristol (no Karma intended).
Sadly enough, I live in a town with a nuclear reactor on a college campus. I had the misfortune of recently bumping into one of the cheerleaders for the nuclear industry. This shill actually said that when all the proverbial dust settles, nuclear dust mind you, that Fukushima would be viewed a success story. He actually stated that low levels of radiation were good for you. I ended the conversation by saying the only lesson Fukushima should teach us is that nuclear power isn't nor ever can be safe.
look at this 1:55!!!! Holly shit!!
The Firm - All The King's Horses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUY-TCOWsS4&feature=related
(Wilmington, NC)
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is part of the General Electric complex at 3901 Castle Hayne Road that employs 2,000 people.
A proposed uranium enrichment plant in that complex will use new technology - laser isotope separation - to produce fuel for nuclear power plants.
Global Laser Enrichment, a venture owned by GE, Hitachi and Cameco Corp., has exclusive rights to develop the laser technology worldwide.
The project is estimated to cost $1 billion and create 900 jobs. The facility would receive about $25.7 million in incentives from the state and $10 million in incentives from New Hanover County.
In summer 2009, GLE began a 'test loop' for the commercial use of the laser enrichment process. At that time, construction was expected to start on the new facility in 2012.
http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic50
Iran must be using the wrong enrichment technology. If only the clerics would cut a large check to GE?
The Firm - Radioactive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtJmVDoY904
time to party!
Accumulation in the biosphere of this rather small rock is just beginning and the source of the isotopes is unabated. That is objective fact.
Humans are wired to be ignorant and are not capable of stopping the coming mass extinction.
Pray for whatever just outcome you can imagine, if it provides you comfort.
Reading what human beings are supposedly wired from the views of US citizens is always a pleasure.
Now may be the time to buy some Spanish and Italian canned fish products, before it gets around the world. US salmon stocks will be the next fish to have that special glow. Keep up the strong work GW.
Mediteranean seafood is "Chernobylfied".
I bought a bunch of cases of canned Alaska Salmon a week after the quake.
What on earth are you talking about?
From TFA:
> "radiation about 3% higher than natural background sources"
Do you understand how unimportant is this difference?
If you're a total moron and eat 3 meals of tuna meat a week and do that for months, you'll probably get sick anyway.
Trav is that you?
i hope your comment was /sarc
becasue... its significantly worse than they will ever let you know, Sir
Perhaps Obama can make another gesture; after having his family swim in the Gulf of Mexico, maybe they can show us how good the tuna tastes.
Stuff's cumulative (just like the Mercuri in the tuna, incidentally).