Fukushima and Marine Life

Latest news is that Japan decided to restart two of their nuclear reactors.

After all of them had been shut down a few months ago, there was a general sense that maybe this would be it: Japan could use other available energy and wouldn’t risk another catastrophe after Fukushima, which not only had terrible consequences for the Japanese but for the entire planet.

Considering that they managed to live for a few months without nuclear energy, one wonders if they couldn’t have been an inspiration for all countries that run nuclear reactors to shut down theirs too. The threat of further radioactive poisoning remains acute; while half of Europe is still radioactive 25 years after Chernobyl, also the aftereffects of Fukushima will remain on this planet for hundreds of years to come. Germany is the only country so far that has made any concrete plans to stop using their reactors.

Natural News reported a month ago that “a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Friends of the Earth (FoE), Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), and the Nuclear Information and Resource Center (NIRS) has unearthed a shocking series of new evidence proving a deliberate, global cover-up of the true severity of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. And the unfortunate reality is that the mainstream media continues to blatantly ignore this colossal scandal.”

It has only just recently been reported by the BBC that “Pacific Bluefin tuna caught off the coast of California have been found to have radioactive contamination from last year’s Fukushima nuclear accident. The fish would have picked up the pollution while swimming in Japanese waters, before then moving to the far side of the ocean.”

Nicholas Fisher, a professor of marine sciences at Stony Brook University, New York, told BBC News, “It’s a lesson to us in how interconnected eco-regions can be, even when they may be separated by thousands of miles.” Apparently he was ‘stunned’ to find the radioactive signal in Bluefin tuna. All the fish examined in the study showed elevated levels of radioactive caesium – the isotopes 134 and 137.

Caesium-137 is present in seawater anyway as a result of the fallout from atomic weapons testing, but the short, two-year half-life of caesium-134 means the contamination can be tied directly to Fukushima. There is no other explanation for the isotope’s presence.

The scientists consider the fish “perfectly safe” to eat and the levels of radioactivity are “well within permitted limits”: “The potassium was about 30 times higher than the combined radio-caesium levels. If you calculate how much additional radioactivity there is in the Pacific Bluefin tuna caught in California relative to the natural background – it’s about 3%,” said Prof Fisher. Tuna caught in the coming months will be subjected to new tests.

In view of the shocking publications by the American Food and Drug Administration about their labeling and controlling food values (including the evaluation that GMO is good for humans, whereas walnuts are considered drugs) it is vital for all of us to know by means of thorough independent studies just how much radiation is present in our marine life, including sea salt and seaweed, a vital ingredient in meals, not only for vegetarians. And then of course to research all other food groups as well. And just how much radiation is ‘perfectly safe’ to ingest? Does anybody really know? We haven’t lived long enough with all this radiation around and within us to experience the lasting effects on our bodies.

Bhagawati, Osho News