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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat is the Impact of Fukushima on Wildlife in American NorthWest?
From Washingtons Blog, via Ritholtz and thebigpicture.com, here.
Seals, Sea Lions, Polar Bears, Bald Eagles, Sea Stars, Turtles, King and Sockeye Salmon, Herring, Anchovies and Sardines In The Western Part of North America All Suffering Mysterious Diseases At the Same Time.
Is it Radiation from Fukushima?
Weve previous documented that seals, sea lions, polar bears, sea stars, turtles, sockeye salmon, herring, anchovies and sardines on the West Coast of North America are all suffering mysterious diseases which are killing many. Weve asked whether this is related to massive releases of radiation from Fukushima. Update.
Sadly, we can now add other wildlife to the list.
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Buz Marthaler, Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah co-founder: Its just hard to have your national bird in your arms, going through seizures in a way it cant control when you can see its pain but dont know whats happening to it. As a human being, you just have problems with that. And when you lose one, it just grabs your heart. [...] In an average year, we might get one or two, but weve received nine so far, and five of those have died. The other four are still in our care. [...] We arent ruling out anything.
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In a second article, EneNews notes:
Juneau Empire, Dec. 29, 2013: [...] the king [chinook] salmon has fallen from its throne. [...] Alaska has seen unprecedented declines in recent years [...] scientists like Joe Orsi and Jim Murphy, both fisheries research biologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are digging deeper into [...] the cause of the startling downward trend. [...] When asked about the potential impact Fukushima may be having on king salmon stocks in the Gulf of Alaska and elsewhere in the state, Orsi would not comment. Ive been told to refer you to the (Environmental Protection Agency), he said, Because Im not an expert on the topic. Calls and emails to the EPA were not returned in time and digging on the federal agencys site revealed no current information on radiation from the Fukushima disaster. The last posted monitoring results occurred in June of 2011.
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Remember the report about Fukushima a while back where they said there were no high levels of dangerous radiation being reported, then disclosed that the measuring equipment wasn't capable of reading the levels which were present?
Would it be possible to hide dangerous levels and actual damage from from two or three nations for a decade? Seems too incredible, yet we know there is secret information that has been kept from us for a much longer time in our history. There are public monitors out there, such as http://epa.gov/radnet/radnet-data/radnet-seattle-bg.html, or http://www.radiationnetwork.com/ - can they be trusted? When one looks at all those, there seems no reason to have one's hair on fire. Yet Fukushima has been spewing poison into the atmosphere and water for a couple of years now, people are reporting sickness, food is being thrown away.
There is a great motivation to avoid measuring the problem. We've never had a simmering nuclear reactor throwing low-level amounts of ? at us for years, but if it were so very dangerous how would you protect 13 million people in Tokyo, or the population of the entire West portion of the U.S.?
Or is is just much ado about nothing?
chervilant
(8,267 posts)is not "that big a problem," I would encourage you to watch "The Battle of Chernobyl."
mtasselin
(666 posts)If these people say it is not a problem I recommend taking a vacation to Japan, I here it is lovely this time of the year and it has a certain glow to it.
Esse Quam Videri
(685 posts)We haven't eaten seafood since Fukushima. Just wonder about fruit we get from the west coast and local dairy.
longship
(40,416 posts)Distance is our friend here. It's 5,500 miles of Pacific Ocean between.
RC
(25,592 posts)Don'tcha kno that all that is killin this world is radiation? And in a little while, the west coast will be just as radioactive as the central core 5,500 miles away? Over crowding, disease, chemical pollution destroying the environment, have nothing to do with environmental destruction. Why just look at Chernobyl, bare, dead ground, sterilized, for hundreds of miles in any direction. It will be ten's of thousands of years before anything can survive there again. And that's the trutpf.
drynberg
(1,648 posts)First of all, we're talking 2 3/4 years of huge amounts of high radiation water going directly into the Pacific (400+tons) plus huge amounts drifting eastward in the wind, falling out along the way or in the US. The Pacific is not an inert swimming pool, it has strong fast currents very much like rivers, carrying nuclear poisons far from the source...then we have organisms such as fish. Remember, they swim and migrate across the sea. Lastly, should we trust what the Japanese and US governments are telling us? Well, we in my family are eating nothing from the Pacific. Nothing. We live in Maine, and that isn't far enough away from this poisonous disaster.
rdking647
(5,113 posts)but that doesnt matter to the scaremongers.
the amount of radiation dumped into the enviroment in japan may be large but bt the time it reached across the ocen it would be miniscule. thats simple physics
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)Coincidence?
Octafish
(55,745 posts)But they don't.
Drew Richards
(1,558 posts)Last edited Tue Dec 31, 2013, 09:41 PM - Edit history (1)
Without freaking out?
The truth is...yes there have been and will be more plumes of fallout on the west coast. This is why the detectors were 80% shut down for maintnence....
The real reason is that even though the amount is currently negligable...it is still higher than normal background but not high enough for concern. If we told you the truth that the entire west coast and even as far as illinois higher than normal levels of beta particles keep showing up you would all be in a panic..and we cant have that....at least not until its enough to be indisputably too high for safe habitation...
Because thats how we roll...
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)That place is a veritable pit of nuke waste. Last I heard it was spreading out.
Thing about rads is they don't go away. They don't get assimilated and degrade fast. Cesium 137, just one of the many rads, has a half life of 30 years.
Drew Richards
(1,558 posts)That cant be a good sign especially for the guys trying off load 4.
oregonjen
(3,338 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)But some of what Hanford produced IS in Oregon, eh? And all of the NW.