For You Seafood Lovers

On 3/28 (remember that this is a fast/fluid situation and what was written a week ago is nearly prophetic a week later) I wrote this article about the effect of radiation on the Japanese economy. My best friend's brother has lved in Japan for 10 years, he's married to a Japanese woman and they have two children. They got out of Japan last week and have been spending their time in the canyons of Utah.

In any case, at the tme I wrote the article, radiation was found a mile out to sea, we know know that tha Japanese government has approved the pumping of 11,500 tons of water or if my calculations are correct, about 2.5 million gallons of radio-active water back into the ocean. While that may seem like a drop in the bucket, the raciation levels in the seawater around the plant are already at 7.5 million times the legal limit and this was from a leak alone, the reading was taken before any pumping.

This is sure to destroy the Japanese fishing culture, which is as embeded in Japan as rice. Fishing for certain species has already been halted when radioactivity was found in a local fish called a sand lance, about 3 miles offshore. Other then radioactive iodine 131, a more dangerous form was found, cesium-137 which has a half life of over 30 years. So in essence, it will be centuries before Cesium dissipates. 


Even more disturbing however is the food chain and the pelagic species that travel thousands of miles across the ocean, a path which Japan is in the middle of. I would venture to guess that radioactivity will be found in fish, reptiles and mammals (birds, turtles and whales) off the California coast within a few months and in the Atlantic sometime this year. 


Just as a quick illustration of how fast this can travel, I put a backyard pond in and filled it with Koi, Guppies, and a few other species that I bought. I'm probably 20 or more miles from the nearest large body of fresh water (the Everglades), while there may be some closer, smaller bodies of water at golf courses and such. I had a problem with Egrets and a few other water fowl frequenting my pond for breakfast, lunch and dinner. About 4 months after I put fish in my pond, I noticed 2 fish that I did not but, they were identical and small. Six months later they were the size of the Koi, it's not a species I bought, it isn't a species my local fish store sells, so it obviously came from bird droppings which contained eggs from fish they had eaten somewhere else.  


I think for that reason alone, we are already way past Chernobyl in the scale and impact of this disaster. As for the Japanese economy (being the 3rd largest, this is no small thing), the world and markets I believe will feel shockwaves and ripple effects for years to come.


The worst thing about all of this is the information has been deliberately withheld or manufactured so even these worst case scenarios are likely the tip of the iceberg. 


Here's more on the story 


Here's more on cesium-137