Radioactive Tuna Found in US Waters

Northern blue fin tuna. Photo via: TreeHugger.com

It's been more than a year since an earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered tsunamis and the nation was brought to the brink of nuclear disaster, but the environmental impact of those events has hardly subsided. According to scientists, scores of bluefin tuna have begun arriving to the west coast of the United States bearing qualities startlingly similar to Godzilla, another famed Japanese export -- namely, they're radioactive.

While the highly-charged migratory fish don't seem poised to trample any unsuspecting cities just yet, experts are still concerned to find the radiation leaked from Japan's nuclear power plant at Fukushima has found its way across the Pacific.

"We were frankly kind of startled," says Nicholas Fisher, a researcher studying the radioactive tuna's arrival to California.

In a study slated to appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists report that more than a dozen bluefin tuna fish caught off the coast of San Diego last year showed abnormally high levels of radioactive caesium, conclusively linked to the accidental discharges washed into the waters around Fukushima.

Researchers say that, although the level of radiation found in these samples is more than ten times what was found before the disaster, the radioactive tuna is still within the range considered safe for human consumption, reports the BBC.

However, the case does illustrate how migratory species can carry pollution over vast distances, they say.

"It's a lesson to us in how interconnected eco-regions can be, even when they may be separated by thousands of miles," Nicholas Fisher, a professor of marine sciences at Stony Brook University, New York, told BBC News.

The findings should serve as a humbling reminder about the broad-reaching impacts that nuclear disaster could have on the health of the world's species, ecosystems, and even ourselves, particularly considering how narrowly the worst-case-scenario at Japan's Fukushima plant was avoided.

Just to be safe, in light of these as yet innocuous radioactive tuna fish reaching the furthest corners of the Pacific, it might be best if we avoid calling them "chicken" -- of the sea, or otherwise.

Single Bluefin Tuna Sold For $736,000

Photo courtesy: AP/Screen Grab

This has to be one of the most widespread cases of a type of meglomania I have ever seen - to think that one's eating enjoyment is so superior to all other considerations that it is their perogative to wipe out an entire species of mammals rather than stop eating them. Unbelievable!

The Bluefin Tuna is in the process of being fished to extinction: conservation scientists say that if current trends continue, stocks of the giant fish will almost certainly be depleted for good. Yet repeated efforts to get international bodies that regulate the trade of endangered species to take action have been blocked time and again. And this little news item offers a pretty good indicator of why:


Here's the Associated Press:

A bluefin tuna caught off northeastern Japan fetched a record price of about $736,000 on Thursday in an auction at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market.

The price for the 593-pound tuna translates to $1,238 per pound — also a record, said Yutaka Hasegawa, a Tsukiji market official ... Shimogawara pointed out that, if sold at cost, each piece of the sushi could cost as much as $96.

It's also worth remembering that the sale of a bluefin tuna in an auction this time last year, also broke a record for fetching the highest price at that time.

Apparently, buying the fish for such an exorbitant price – even for the rare and typically exorbitantly priced fish – was partly a marketing stunt orchestrated by Kiyoshi Kimura, the president of Kiyomura Co., which operates a major sushi chain.

Nonetheless, it reveals just how high market demand for the endangered species continues to be, and how the excitement generated by what equates to a lavish luxury good continues to trump conservation efforts worldwide.

Many of the news reports circulating the headline-grabbing news scarcely mention the dire straits the fish is in, and instead elect to bask in the glitzy glow of the high price tag it fetches. That the bluefin is capable of snagging such a huge price tag is of course the primary reason that conservationists have been unable to stop its decline – such efforts have been blocked by Japan, of course, where the fish is cherished in high-end sushi; but, also by European nations, where fishermen profit by selling the catch.

Cases like the bluefin are especially and pointedly depressing: We have here a case where an entire species will probably go extinct expressly to please the tastes of luxury consumers.

Sea Shepard Releases 800 Captured Bluefin Tuna

CAUGHT: The two nets, one of which was holding 800 tuna that were released by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Photo courtesy: Wildlife Extra News

June 2010 will be remembered as the month the Steve Irwin with Captain Paul Watson and crew released 800 illegally caught bluefin tuna. The divers from the Sea Sheperd Conservation Society engaged in a dramatic confrontation with fishermen in Libyan waters.

Capt. Watson and his crew discovered two fishing vessels towing two cages. One of the cages contained approx. 800 fish while the second cage was empty. Capt. Watson was unhappy with the crew's explanation about how, when and where these tuna were caught. Suspecting that quotas were being ignored, Capt. Watson brought the bow of the Steve Irwin up to the cages to get a better look.

"At this point," says Capt. Watson, "one of the fishing boats rammed the Steve Irwin and a fisherman tried to violently gaff Sea Shepherd crew members with a long, sharp-hooked pole. The Steve Irwin crew retaliated with eight litres of rotten butter forcing the fishing vessel to retreat and to stand off."

The two fishing vessels began circling their cages in a defensive and suspicious manner. Sea Sheperd notified the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna of possible violations; but, they did not respond.

Divers knew they must cut the nets and free the tuna.

GREAT ESCAPE: Simon Ager captures the moment the tuna are let out of the net. Photo courtesy: Wildlife Extra News

Capt. Watson explains how the rescue came to be: "With two fishing vessels containing angry Italian crews, there were risks involved with getting into the water to assess the bluefin catch, but if the catch was illegal, Sea Shepherd divers knew they must cut the nets and free the bluefin tuna.

"A five-person dive crew entered one of two cages being towed by the main fishing vessel to identify the size, age, and quantity of the bluefin tuna within. Once it was clearly established that the cage was overstocked and that a high percentage were juveniles, Sea Shepherd divers freed the 700-800 tuna.

"It is our position that the bluefin tuna we freed from that cage held a large number of juveniles and that the fish were caught after the official closure of the season. It is also our position that the fish that we freed exceeded the quota."

Canadian cameraman, Simon Ager, a Sea Shepherd crew member filmed the release of the tuna from the center of the cage. Swimmers confirm that all 700 - 800 tuna inside the enclosure were freed.

"They shot out of that net like racehorses," said Simon Ager.

Via Wildlife Extra News