Fukushima the disaster that changed our world forever

Fukushima the disaster that changed our world forever: 27% increase of radiation levels found in salmon and halibut off the coast of Alaska

Earthwindmap

The 7-Year Anniversary of Fukushima’s Nuclear Disaster on March 11, 2011

Greetings, Gary!


The up-to-date and timely information your website delivers just brought a new topic to my mind: Fukushima. On your March 8 posting about another million tons of toxic waste to be dumped into the Pacific, the thought occurred to me ‘how much more radiation would I be reading in this coming year’s fish harvest than when the Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011, changed our world forever?’


As a musher in Alaska, I have often been blessed from collecting numerous people’s previous year’s salmon catch as they cleaned out their freezers, making room for the current year’s catch. I fed it to my dog team and I ate endless pounds of it myself. I also have enjoyed standing on the banks of some of our first class rivers while fishing for salmon with a pole which I no longer do.


When the Fukushima fiasco occurred, it was obvious to me that with the currents that come up the coast of Alaska from Japan, we were in trouble. I believed our fishing resources would become radio active and because I love my dogs as most would love their family members, I knew I had to verify this food supply was safe. 


Talking to anyone I could who was supposedly in the “know,” I was assured there would be no problem. That did not ease my mind. I decided to invest in a radiation monitor of my own. Being a disabled veteran with a limited income, I set out to buy a meter of the best value I could with my minimal resources. I was told that the most common monitor being used in Japan that people living near the Fukushima area use is the Radex RD 1503. This meter is made in Moscow, Russia, by Quarta-Rad Limited.


The Russian people who had to deal with the monster, Chernobyl, manufactured a quality radiation monitor and I decided to order one. The meter cost me approximately $160.00 U.S. Funds. This monitor was designed for detection and evaluation of the level of ionized radiation and for the evaluation of contamination levels of materials and products. Although a good monitor, it cannot be used for official conclusions about radiation, environment and fouling factors. The meter estimates radiation environment in magnitude of ambient equivalent power of gamma radiation dose taking into account pollution of objects by beta sources. The meter reads two ways: microSievert per hour or microRoentgen per hour.  


Once obtaining the meter, I started taking readings of people’s salmon. By the second year after the Fukushima incident, all salmon I scanned read radio active. I have seen a steady increase in radiation levels of salmon through last year with not one salmon failing to register some contamination. 


Last year I checked my first halibut which came from local waters. It, too, registered radiation. Since halibut are bottom feeders, I thought this might explain why, on my walks along the beach and seeing at various times dead crab, the occasional sea otter, and a couple of times more jelly fish than I could count, not to mention numerous birds. 


In my attempts to find what constitutes safety levels of radiation, official agencies do not seem to be able to agree on just what those safety levels are. I will say that I have found an increase of over 27% of radiation levels since around 2012. So whether the data I have observed is minimal or should be alarming, it is definitely building every year.


Last year, a woman I know, who had just been released from the hospital after receiving numerous doses of radiation had me scan her body. It read lower than the salmon taken out of her freezer. 


Three days ago I talked with a commercial fisherman whom I respect and I asked him what he had heard about radiation levels and salmon. He told me they have been told there is no radiation problem in salmon and they are healthy. I told him that I was finding constant radiation and I would come over and scan his salmon in his freezer if he wanted me to. He was visually shaken. 


Many of us have chosen to no longer consume for ourselves or our dogs any seafood off the Pacific Coast. From what I understand, radiation can build up in one’s system.


I have also been warned by my friends and numerous others whose fish I have scanned to be quiet about this because it might not go well with me. But ethically I feel I have a moral obligation to my fellow man and I am issuing a strong alert about the condition I have personally found with the salmon and halibut in Alaskan waters. I do not want anyone to suffer a “slow burn” with their health and life. 


That’s it from Alaska for now.


Bill Laughing-Bear