07/30/2015 / By Greg White
Radiation from the Fukushima disaster was predicted to reach U.S. coastal waters in early 2014 and peak in 2016. This dire prediction is proving true. Officials announced that the Pacific Ocean, which makes up approximately one-third of the world’s surface area, has been contaminated with radiation by Fukushima.
All of this just so happens to coincide with the rise in dead marine life. Six dead whales washed up on the San Francisco Bay shores within a five-week time period this year. Furthermore, since the Fukushima disaster, an alarming number of starved sea lion pups have plagued the shores of Southern California.
After a tsunami struck the coast of Japan that caused untold amounts of radiation to leak into the Pacific Ocean, as well as shoot up into the atmosphere, in 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) established a project to monitor radiation levels across the Pacific Ocean. The United States made a $400,000 fund for the project; however, nothing much was ever reported on it again.
Radioactive waste from Fukushima found near United States
The IAEA visited the Marshall Islands in July 2014 to help train local officials to sample seawater for radioactive elements. The study should have been conducted years before. Nevertheless, two samples were gathered on filter cartridges. At the time, officials said they planned on monitoring the Marshall Islands for trace amounts of cesium every three months, but so far, none of that data has been reported to the public.
Trace amounts of cesium-134 and cesium-137 were found in samples gathered near Vancouver Island as well, according to a separate study not associated with IAEA. This is the first time radioactive substances in the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima disaster have been found near the United States.
The experts keep trying to console the masses that the ocean water has diluted the radiation so much that it does not pose an immediate threat to people. West Coast states aren’t buying it, and citizens there have understandably reported being concerned about their safety. Exposure to radiation, even in small amounts, has an accumulative, long-term effect.
Radiation from Fukushima possibly linked to rising sea temperatures
The long-term effects that radiation can have on marine life are becoming manifest in the Pacific Ocean. In 2013, a warm body of water known as “the blob” was discovered in the Pacific Ocean stretching 1,000 miles in diameter and 300 feet.
The mainstream media acknowledges that the blob is likely involved in the sudden rise in marine life stranded on the shores of Southern California. In addition, the blob is tied to California’s drought. Usually, low pressure in the winter contributes to rainfall on California’s coast. The high-pressure air hovering above the blob has deprived California of a major source of rain. Nevertheless, the mainstream media blames global warming as the culprit behind the blob, without once even mentioning the Fukushima disaster as a possible contributing factor.
The problem is that global warming is a gradual process that does not explain the sporadic and exponential rise in sea temperatures within the past few years. Radiation leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima power plant could be heating the water as a side effect of radioactive decay. The cesium found near Vancouver Island could give credence to the view that radiation is responsible, at least in part, for the blob.
It is important to remember that Fukushima is a continuous disaster, rather than an isolated debacle that occurred years ago. The core of three nuclear reactors melted, which released and continues to release an unknown amount of radiation into the water.
Since no federal agency samples the Pacific Coast for radiation, it is important that other agencies continue to monitor isotope levels on California’s coast well beyond 2015. The rippling effects of the tsunami may have subsided in the water, but they will be felt by future generations to come.
Sources include:
http://www.marshallislandsjournal.com
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com
Tagged Under:
Earth, Pacific Ocean, radiation, warm blob
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