Tag Archives: Biotic Monitoring

Cesium, Iodine, Marine Life, North America

No Fukushima Contamination in 2015 Alaskan Fish

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Alaska Department of Environmental ConservationThe Seattle Times is reporting no contamination in any of the 24 Alaskan salmon, halibut, pollock,  cod, or sablefish that were sampled from 4 different regions in 2015 for the Alaskan Department of Environmental Conservation.

Read the full article.

See the results from the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Presently, InFORM members at Health Canada are running the ~160 salmon samples from over 15 different major BC fisheries collected in 2015 and we will report the results as soon as they become available.

Cesium, Fukushima, Iodine, Japan, Marine Life, Peer Reviewed

Contamination of freshwater fish by the Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Overview of monitoring results

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By Jay T. Cullen

Adult Oncorhynchus mykiss or rainbow trout. One of the species monitored for Fukushima derived radionuclides in the Wada et al. (2015) study.

The purpose of this post is to report the results of a monitoring study looking for Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) derived contamination in freshwater fishes in Japan.  The peer reviewed study by Wada and colleagues was recently published in Journal of Environmental Radioactivity which is unfortunately behind a publisher paywall.  This post continues a series of posts aimed at communicating the results of scientific investigations of the impact of the FDNPP disaster on public and environmental health.  Wada and colleagues measured the amount of 131-Iodine (131I half life ~ 8 days), 134-Cesium (134Cs half life ~2 years), and 137-Cesium (137Cs half life ~30 years) in freshwater fish species collected from rivers, lakes and aquaculture ponds in Fukushima Prefecture between March 2011 and December 2014.  A total of 16 species and 2692 individual fish were examined.  Between March and June 2011 11 fish were found to have detectable but low activities of 131I (<25 Bq kg-1 wet weight) suggesting that radioactive iodine did not accumulate significantly in fish.  Continue reading Contamination of freshwater fish by the Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Overview of monitoring results →

Cesium, Fukushima, Japan, Marine Life, Peer Reviewed

Impact of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster on Marine Animals Along the Coast of Japan

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By Jay T. Cullen

Samurai Crab (Paradorippe sp.)
Samurai Crab (Paradorippe sp.)

The purpose of this diary is to share the results of a recently published, peer reviewed, study that examined the radiological impact of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) meltdowns on invertebrates living in coastal waters close to the disaster site in Japan.  The paper by Sohtome and colleagues measured the activity of artificial radionuclides 134-Cesium (134Cs half life ~ 2 years) and 137-Cesium (137Cs half life ~ 30 years) in 592 specimens representing 46 different taxonomic families collected in coastal waters in Fukushima Prefecture between July 2011 and August 2013.  The authors found 137Cs in 77% of the samples with highest activities in the organisms near to or south of the FDNPP where highest levels in seawater and marine sediments were found after the large initial releases in 2011.  Levels of 137Cs decreased exponentially with time with differences between the various taxonomic groups.  Continue reading Impact of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster on Marine Animals Along the Coast of Japan →