Sockeye Salmon In Canada To Be Tested For Radiation From
Japan
Fukushima Power Plant
EMF Protection Devices
Magnetic Field Detector
Tue August 30, 2011 |
By
Robin Cedar and Jake Ellison
Sockeye salmon returning to Canada this year will be
tested by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) for
radiation contamination that might be picked up in the North
Pacific from Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster.
However, Washington state officials have no plans to test
salmon specifically for radiation related to the Japanese
disaster because earlier environmental testing showed so few
signs of radiation that current levels in fish, if any,
would be "undetectable," a spokesperson for the Department
of Health said.
Canadian officials are testing because when the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan failed after the
earthquake and tsunami in March, highly radioactive water
(about 100,000 times the normal level) seeped out,
contaminating nearby water and air.
The ocean currents leaving Japan can carry the radiation
and contaminate organisms. The
Victoria News reported that sockeye salmon returning to
the west coast of Canada "migrate far out into the Pacific,
as far west as the Bering Sea," where currents from Japan
overlap with the salmon routes.
CBC News reported some salmon can go as far as across
the Pacific to the coast of Japan. In either scenario, the
salmon could possibly pass through contaminated water or eat
organisms carrying some radiation.
The CFIA called the testing a "prudent" measure, reported
Victoria News, as the agency anticipates the tests "will
show radiation in B.C.-caught salmon is well below levels
that would prompt federal action." Air quality, milk and
food products from Japan have been tested before, according
to CFIA spokesperson Alice D'Anjou. "We do not expect this
situation to change when fish are tested," she said.
A strange twist
CBC News reported that some believe the announcement to
be political, as the Cohen Commission hearings into the
collapse of the 2009 Fraser River sockeye salmon run resumed
in Vancouver earlier this month. Fisheries activist
Alexandra Morton with the Raincoast Research Society says
she supports the testing, but calls the announcement a
political move.
"If they were actually concerned about the health of
people and the fish, they would have started this actually
at the beginning of the commercial openings," she said. "But
to release this two days before the disease hearings at the
Cohen inquiry, to me it's a political statement, it's a
political effort to appear responsible," she said.
The tests for contamination will run through August and
September. The results will be posted on the
CFIA website when they become available.
http://www.emfnews.org/store
|
