by Cherrie Lou Bullones / The Japan Daily Press / January 21, 2013 /
A murasoi fish, comparable to a rockfish, was found at a port in the area of the now-closed Fukushima nuclear power plant, which contained 254,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium, an amount which shockingly exceeds Japan’s legal limit for seafood radiation by 2,540 times. This was confirmed by the facility’s owner and operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO).
An article published in Science magazine said that levels of cesium in seafood in the vicinity of Fukushima had not really decreased since 2011. Ken Buesseler, author of the article, said that samples he collected in August 2012 contained cesium levels that were 250 times what is considered safe by the Japanese government. In October 2012, some 40 percent of bottom-dwelling sea creatures showed high levels of radiation that were 134 and 137 levels above the legal limit. In the same month, TEPCO admitted that radiation leaks coming from the nuclear plant have not yet fully stopped.
Last year, the world realized that the radiation hazard on seafood was not simply limited in the areas near Fukushima, or even in the country. In July, Russia said that it was concerned with the fishes that were caught in its coastlines that were near Japan. Earlier in May, authorities found that Californian coastlines were harboring contaminated tuna. The Japanese government, for its part, did admit that the levels of contamination are “extremely high”; however, it also pointed out that they were only detected in kinds of fish that are found nearest to the plant.