So the momometer tells us of another huge news story: bluefin tuna have carried radiation leaked from Japan's tsunami-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant across the ocean to California, where fishermen are catching them. (The momometer, a Geiger-counter of news magnitude, is my 86-year old-mother, Rose. No computer. When she phones me to tell me she's heard a news story, it means it's huge. And this one is.)
The significance: while Californians wait for currents to bring the floating debris of tsunami-devastated towns knocking on their heavenly shores, migratory animals such as tunas, albatrosses, sea turtles, and sharks are rocketing Fukushima nuclear plant radiation across the ocean. We know the whole world is connected, but we didn't quite think about how some of the connectors travel awfully far awfully fast. Long before tsunami debris arrives on Golden State sands, some California sport fishermen are catching radiation packages.
And so you ask, "Are the fish okay to eat?" Well, yes, because the amount of radiation -- while elevated and definitely from Fukushima -- is still miniscule, well below levels that give experts safety concerns (and I mean experts, not just government agencies). Another answer is, "Well, no," because they carry enough mercury to make you sick; that's a different issue. The mercury comes not from nuclear plants but from coal. And if you don't know where your bluefin originates, remember that Atlantic bluefin -- of no concern regarding radiation -- share the mercury problem plus are deeply depleted by overfishing. So another answer is, "It depends on what you mean by okay."
If you mean just the radiation, then yes, they're okay to eat. (The fish, if they could, might ask you to remember that it's also okay not to eat them.)
The radiation work was done by some of my colleagues at Stony Brook University on Long Island, where I have a desk, and Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Lab in Monterey, Calif., where I've occasionally encountered a welcome mat.
That is to say that when my mother phoned, I did not let on that I'd actually known about the Fukushima-tuna-radiation link for months but had been sworn to professional secrecy. Now the scientific review process has done its thing, resulting in the publication and unveiling of the results, and my mother has heard the news, so I am free to spill a few more beans.
How I first learned about it was one of those exceptionally cool moments in the life of a scientist, when you get to peek behind the curtain of discovery for a privileged preview. In this case, the curtain was the menu at my favorite local Indian Restaurant.
Nicholas Fisher, in whose Stony Brook lab much of the analyses were done, had phoned to invite me to dinner with Dan Madigan, lead author of the published study, and Zofia Baumann, who did a lot of the analytical work. Knowing of my working interest in things tuna and animals migratory, they had something to share.
Around the time the dumplings hit the table, Dr. Fisher hit me with the findings and I said, "Holy shit."
He explained that the fish were quite safe to eat, and I said, "Holy shit."
Madigan explained that though they detected Fukushima radiation in bluefin tuna, which migrate across the northern Pacific, they found none in yellowfin tuna, which don't. He said he would expect that certain seabirds are also quickly spreading radiation across the ocean and I said, "Holy shit."
The waiter came back, and I said, "Saag paneer, please." Now the thing is, we spent a lot of time talking about the ubiquity of background radiation (even bananas have "radiation"), about safe levels of radiation. We discussed how the 15 bluefin tuna they sampled had cesium radiation levels 10 times higher than fish taken before the tsunami -- but that even those levels are still very low, safe to eat. As I said, it's the mercury in the tuna that can certainly make you sick; to be on the safe side it's probably best not to eat more than about 8 ounces of bluefin or yellowfin tuna per week.
So we talked about all that. We talked about migrations, about birds called sooty shearwaters and how they breed in New Zealand, fly past Japan, fly through Alaskan waters, come down the coast of California, cross the tropics and go all the way back to New Zealand -- every year. We talked of the albatrosses that I've seen breeding on tiny mid-Pacific atolls, capable of gliding hundreds of miles without flapping and commanding the whole ocean in their quest for food. And of the 1,000-pound leatherback turtles that breed in Indonesia, then migrate past Japan to feed in the jellyfish grounds off California and Oregon, taking more than a year, stroke upon stroke in the trackless sea in storm and calm alike, to make the round-trip.
I thought of the ageless mystery of all this, the profound miracle, the quiet patience of the planet. I thought of these animals playing their ancient rhythms to the music of the spheres, keeping time to the faith of Earth. I thought of how they struggle to survive against such long natural odds, such high background levels of death. Of how many fall naturally to disease, to predators, to accidents, but how enough have lived these countless millions of years to make all the difference, to be with us as we've arrived to join their voyage. I thought of their newly acquired, safe-to-eat radiation, their mercury burdens, and the fishing hooks and nets we send their way. Of trade-offs made and balances foregone. And I thought, this world, wondrous so far beyond comprehension, and, verily, so fucked up.
The saving grace: the creatures don't understand. The tragedy: neither do we.
~ ~ ~
Carl Safina's recent book, "The View From Lazy Point; A Natural Year in an Unnatural World," has won the 2012 Orion Book Award.
Follow Carl Safina on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CarlSafina
Martin Greenwald: Fusion Energy
Michele Simon: Mercury Bigger Worry Than Radiation in Tuna
Jeff Biggers: Fukushima Tour de Force: New Book Chronicles Nuclear Devil's Tango
Carl Safina: Swimming With Giant Tuna
http://www.petridish.org/projects/fukushima-trips-transport-of-radionuclides-in-pelagic-species
Our goal is to do the analyses and provide the data people clearly want. Along the way we can learn some things about where animals in the Pacific Ocean come from and go to.
This paragraph perfectly sums up what I've been trying to say for a long time.
Now, if only some of us could understand that ending coal needs to be our first order of business.
They must not pay you guys enough. Can't even invest in new canards for you.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18239107
they are losing the argument, when the Japanese reactors restart, they will have lost the war
Fukushima Radiation Risks "Severely Underestimated": Greenpeace | Common Dreams
Radiation Effects on Health: Protect the Children of Fukushima
There Is No "Safe" Exposure to Radiation | NationofChange
Cesium found in plankton 600 km away : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)
The Fukushima cesium in those fish is far less than the natural radiation of the human body.
http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/natural.htm
Science with a Skew: The Nuclear Power Industry After Chernobyl and Fukushima 科学のねじれ−−チェルノブイリ・フクシマ後の原子力発電産業 :: JapanFocus
recent study around France’s nuclear power plants
Reactors and infant mortality
Resort near nuclear plant is worst cancer cluster | Politics | The Observer
Fukushima predicted cancer effects.
After Fukushima: nuclear dirty tricks | Editorial | Comment is free | The Guardian
Radiation health effects --EPA statement
573 deaths 'related to nuclear crisis' : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)
environmental concerns with nuclear power
- there's never enough information provided. We're just told - it's ok. Then later, we're told oh by the way we made a mistake. Countless times. If information was provided, it would make the authors more credible.
- many of the elements that enter your body will not leave it. That means radiation accumulates, and while a single tuna meal would certainly be considered "safe", what about eating sushi regularly, what about all the xrays we are subjected to, what about full body scanners in airports, what about microwave oven radiations, and on and on. If those accumulate, it is no wonder we are a sick society...
so my request to anyone serious about "informing" - stop the bs. give facts, not opinions. yes, one full body scanner blast is "safe" - but what gets deposited in your body? How long does it stay there? No one knows... no one tells, no one puts two and two together, everyone always talks about the fact that one exposure is safe... asking to be taken at his or her word, while the planet is gasping and dying thanks to the so-called experts calling everything "safe", from fracking to tar sands to nuclear power... I'm quitting the tuna and fish until I learn more, and I guess i'll have to do that on my own because no "expert" seems to provide data, only sound bites...
http://www.emaxhealth.com/2/24/33134/medical-imaging-radiation-can-accumulate-overtime.html
how can anyone tell people that there are "safe" levels of radiation is beyond me, since even small levels accumulate and each increases risk of cancer and other side effects. It's disinformation is what it is.
External sources you have some control over too: opt for a pat down at airports instead of going through the scanners. Tell your doctor and dentist they get one x-ray of you if its some kind of emergency, and no more, and that only after negotiating from the starting point that you don't want any. Campaign and vote against every numbskull running for office who thinks nuclear power and nuclear weapons are good things.
There are reports that the Japanese government has been in talks with China and Russia discussing the potential of evacuating 40 million people, and the associated logistics. Some predict this event will collapse the economy of Japan, and destroy the fortunes of many of its trading partners.
Your chance of being irradiated from Fukushima (past, present, future) is extremely high/likely. And, as each day ticks bye, we get closer to a radiological firestorm that will make Chernobyl look pale as to what is unfolding. Those of us, who will not be exposed to radionuclides, will be the exceptions.
You will inhale it, eat it, or have skin exposure. And, it will metastasize into a cancer sometime in your life. Your DNA will be corrupted; and, if you procreate, you will pass your damaged genes on to the next generation, and each generation thereafter.
Radiation levels in the western US and Canada will be extreme as to cause some radiation poisoning in small segments of the population resulting in premature biological extinctions. Food stuffs grown and produced in California and other western states will be too contaminated to pick, and/or consume. All products from Japan should be suspect as to their potential, to be radioactive.
Adding more radiation to the atmosphere and the ocean, Japan is incinerating millions of tons of radioactive debris, and then dumping the ash in Tokyo Bay. Incineration doesn’t remove radiation; this process off gases radionuclides into the air, and the other radionuclides are concentrated in the ash. Incineration of radioactive debris only serves as a volume reducer. There is no method to remediate radioactive isotopes except to remove them from humankind.
TEPCO has admitted to dumping 1000 tons a day of radioactive water…(240,000/GPD or close to 1,000,000 million gallons every 4 days) Historically, TEPCO has fudged and misrepresented its actual discharge rates. Many experts believe these numbers have been significantly understated. The radioactive sea plume has reached Hawaii and should reach the US in less than 6 months. Sea water evaporates, clouds form that produce rain, adding another level of contamination to the atmosphere and land.
Additionally, some approximately 50,000,000 tons of construction and industrial debris is headed our way, expected to hit the US and Canadian coasts in the next 6 months. Some of it is dangerously radioactive.
This will be the beginning of the end for millions of people, and a mass corruption of the *gene pool for man and all other living creatures and plants. This will be the end of nuclear power; but, it will be the end of many of us, too.
It’s not a question of if; it’s just a matter of when.
If you think those who created this nuclear power electricity scheme will be able to contain Fukushima; think again. The same folks who got us into this mess, are the ones charged with fixing it…WTF? Remember the Deepwater Horizon and how the offender BP was left to be the fixer…insanity.
As Rachel Maddow characterized the possibility of a meltdown at SPF #4, we’d have to invent a way to control/fix it. There is no known solution… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/46981461#46981461
*Gene pool corruption…See this Chernobyl preview of our future, I dare you. http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl