Albacore
09:58 PM Apr 29, 2014 -8202- USA Today: Radiation tripled in some albacore tuna off West Coast after Fukushima - Bio-accumulating in bones, not only flesh - Additional exposures to plume could further increase radiation levels - NOAA-funded study to expand after significant findings (AUDIO)
Apr. 29, 2014 -7004- also see: Reuters: Sample of albacore tuna caught offshore Oregon and Washington State have small levels of radioactivity from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster
Apr. 28, 2014 -7003- also see: USA Today: Radiation in some albacore tuna caught off the Oregon coast tripled - the study is the first to look at different parts of the fish - exposure to the plume could further increase radiation levels in the albacore, expected to reach the West Coast this month. Federal agencies aren’t testing for it, but Oregon Health Authority tests quarterly samples of seawater - no Oregon agency does radiation testing on seafood
Apr 28, 2014 -7002- also see: Oregon St. University: Researchers tested loins, carcass and guts and found varying levels - this is one of the first studies to look at different parts of the fish. The loins, or muscle, is what people eat and the bioaccumulation was about the same there as in the carcass-[1]-[i], said Jason Phillips, a research associate - study was supported by OSU & NOAA
Apr. 24, 2014 -7001- also see: Environmental Science and Technology: 26 Pacific albacore caught off Pacific Northwest U.S. coast 2008 – to -2012 were analyzed for 137Cs and Fukushima-attributed 134Cs.-[2]-[ii] Both 2011 (2 of 2) and several 2012 (10 of 17) edible tissue samples exhibited increased activity concentrations of 137Cs (234–824 mBq/kg of wet weight) and 134Cs (18.2–356 mBq/kg of wet weight)
Apr. 28, 2014 - Oregon St. University, Researchers tested loins, carcass and guts and found varying levels - this is one of the first studies to look at different parts of the fish. The loins, or muscle, is what people eat and the bioaccumulation was about the same there as in the carcass.
Apr. 29, 2014 -7000- also see: RT: A year of eating albacore with these cesium traces is the same dose of radiation get from spending 23 seconds in a stuffy basement from radon gas, the study lead author said to Oregon Statesman Journal. Neville added that discovery of any amount of radiation is significant. You can’t say there is zero risk because any radiation is assumed to carry risk, he said. - Since the results did reveal a spike in radiation, the researchers will be expanding their study beyond Oregon to test more tuna across the West Coast -
-6721.2- also see: Reports of Fukushima contamination in albacore tuna off Oregon coast: More U.S. tuna contaminated - Study: Entire food web including humans may be affected as Fukushima radionuclides spread to West Coast
Jul 2014 - Fukushima derived radiocesium in subsistence-consumed northern fur seal and wild celery - In July 2014, our investigative team traveled to St. Paul Island, Alaska to measure concentrations of radiocesium in wild-caught food products, primarily northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus). The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident released radiocesium into the atmosphere and into the western Pacific Ocean; other investigators have detected Fukushima-derived radionuclides in a variety of marine products harvested off the western coast of North America. We tested two subsistence-consumed food products from St. Paul Island, Alaska for Fukushima-derived radionuclides: 54 northern fur seal, and nine putchki (wild celery, Angelica lucida) plants. Individual northern fur seal samples were below minimum detectable activity concentrations of (137)Cs and (134)Cs, but when composited, northern fur seal tissues tested positive for trace quantities of both isotopes. Radiocesium was detected at an activity concentration of 37.2 mBq (134)Cs kg(-1) f.w. (95% CI: 35.9-38.5) and 141.2 mBq (137)Cs kg(-1) f.w. (95% CI: 135.5-146.8). The measured isotopic ratio, decay-corrected to the date of harvest, was 0.26 (95% CI: 0.25-0.28). The Fukushima nuclear accident released (134)Cs and (137)Cs in roughly equal quantities, but by the date of harvest in July 2014, this ratio was 0.2774, indicating that this population of seals has been exposed to small quantities of Fukushima-derived radiocesium. Activity concentrations of both (134)Cs and (137)Cs in putchki were below detection limits, even for composited samples. Northern fur seal is known to migrate between coastal Alaska and Japan and the trace (134)Cs in northern fur seal tissue suggests that the population under study had been minimally exposed Fukushima-derived radionuclides. Despite this inference, the radionuclide quantities detected are small and no impact is expected as a result of the measured radiation exposure, either in northern fur seal or human populations consuming this species.