Japan's nuclear disaster from 2011 now affects fishing industry

May 29, 2012 14:52 GMT  ·  By

In March 2011, Japan's nuclear plant in Fukushima Daiichi threw a fit and found itself releasing a considerable amount of radioactive materials into its surrounding environment.

Unfortunately, these highly dangerous substances decided to wonder off and went on a journey that would lead them all the way to Californian and the American coast.

Thus, a study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal indicates that tuna fish caught in August 2011 on the coast near San Diego contains rather eye-popping levels of radioactive cesium: about 10 times higher than the fish caught in the same region in the previous years.

An article released by greenlivingtips.com reports that scientists working at the Stanford University have no doubts that Japan's latest nuclear disaster is to blame for this situation.

Moreover, the tuna fish in question somehow succeeded in bringing the radioactive materials to the other side of the Pacific ocean faster than your ordinary wind and water currents would have.

Thus, it becomes quite obvious that the waters surrounding Japan are not the only ones we should keep tabs on. Given the fact that there are a lot more species of fish in the ocean than just your migratory tuna, there is no telling which coastal areas may soon be faced with similar situations.

Whilst panic starts to spread amongst the common folks, scientists wish to make it clear that, in spite of being so elevated by comparison with the previous years, the amount of radioactive materials found in San Diego's tuna population is by no means a threat to public health.

As well as this, it seems that tuna fish are quite equipped when it comes to dealing with nuclear waste, meaning that their digestive tract is well suited to metabolize these very harmful substances and that it is highly unlikely that this is a long-term issue.

In spite of the fact that, for the time being at least, we can pretty much rely on the fact that the Pacific tuna population can take care of itself, perhaps it is high time we began paying more attention to how our actions affect the environment.