Tuna Caught Off U.S. Coasts Contain Trace Levels of Fukushima Radiation

Researchers have apparently found levels of radiation “too small to be of realistic concern” from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown in albacore tuna caught off the coasts of Washington and Oregon. Neville et al., “Trace Levels of Fukushima Disaster Radionuclides in East Pacific Albacore,” Environmental Science & Technology, April 2014. The study examined 26 Pacific albacore caught between 2008 and 2012 to compare radiation levels before and after the power station’s destruction in 2011. The researchers reported that levels of specific radioactive isotopes tripled in some of the fish caught after the disaster, but the levels present were still too small to have any noticeable effect on humans. “A year of eating albacore with these cesium traces is about the same dose of radiation as you get from spending 23 seconds in a stuffy basement from radon gas, or sleeping next to your spouse for 40 nights from the natural potassium-40 in their body,” said lead author Delvan Neville of Oregon State University. The trace amounts of Fukushima radiation provide some information about the young albacore’s migration patterns, which is largely unknown before they enter U.S. fisheries at about three years of age. See Oregon State University News & Research Communications, April 28, 2014.

Issue 522