Creepy signs the radiation from Fukushima is contaminating the West Coast

[AkSaber]

28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima

The creepiest...

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[Ban my account ffs!]

I think we're going to find out that this disaster was far far worse than we were ever led to believe.  Which is too bad because nuclear power generation can be safe and reliable.  Just probably not on tsunami threatened coastlines in super active earthquake zones.

[afleitch]

GODZIRRAAAAA!

[AkSaber]

I think we're going to find out that this disaster was far far worse than we were ever led to believe. 

Oh yeah. Complete ignorance or willful deception on the media's part, again. Same story, as usual.

Which is too bad because nuclear power generation can be safe and reliable.  Just probably not on tsunami threatened coastlines in super active earthquake zones.

So true. As with anything, bone-brain mistakes from carelessness will do this.

Lemme applaud your entire post.

[Fuzzybigfoot]

GODZIRRAAAAA!

Dude, this is f[inks]ed up.  Seriously. 

[Seattle]

I'm not sure if this is just incidental, but:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Researcher-High-death-rate-puzzling-behavior-in-BC-orcas--229135551.html

Weird stuff going on with orcas too.

[Ban my account ffs!]

GODZIRRAAAAA!

Dude, this is f[inks]ed up.  Seriously.  

Yeah.. seriousry, Afreitch... what is your probrem?

[Modernity has failed us]

I want a third arm.

[afleitch]

GODZIRRAAAAA!

Dude, this is f[inks]ed up.  Seriously.  

Yeah.. seriousry, Afreitch... what is your probrem?

Oh come on. It's the plot to classic Godzilla movies

[The Free North]

Just another reason to never move the the west coast

[AkSaber]

I want a third arm.

Eating GMOs will help with that too.

[Modernity has failed us]

I want a third arm.

Eating GMOs will help with that too.

Sweet. I'm on it.

[Redalgo]

I'm not sure if this is just incidental, but:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Researcher-High-death-rate-puzzling-behavior-in-BC-orcas--229135551.html

Weird stuff going on with orcas too.

I don't know really, but pollutants tend to get more dangerously concentrated in predators up the food-chain (which may in turn be why sea lions and polar bears are effected, if the radiation is in fact what is harming them?). Even without consuming prey with radioactive materials in them I think orcas are already considered hazardous material if they wash up on shore.

This thread makes me wonder how the release of radioactive material from Fukushima will end up comparing to the long-standing Cold War practice of the Soviets disposing of nuclear waste and at times even entire reactor cores off the Arctic coasts of Novaya Zemliya. The radiation from those waters eventually contaminated much of the North Pacific, getting into things like salmon. Over the long run I don't really know how much of this radioactive material it takes for it to actually have a meaningful health impact on life thousands of miles away.

Either way, I'm curious to better understand the subject.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

While Fukushima is a problem, the article linked to in the original post is to a scare site.  Take for example the Vancouver Sun report that is linked at that site.  What the newspaper article makes at least somewhat clear is that while high numbers of imported Japanese fish are showing some ¹³⁷Cs contamination, only a very few are doing so at high levels (≥ 1 Bq/g)  Given the biological half life of cesium and and the results of a 1972 on dog mortality from high levels ¹³⁷Cs (considerably higher than in these fish), you'd be need to be eating nothing but Fukushima caught sashimi to be in any serious risk.

Plus there are plenty of chemical poisons to be worried about.  I'd be more concerned about the effects of pollution from Chinese industry than from  Fukushima on the health of sea life off the North American coast simply because those are far larger in quantity.

[Space7]

I'm not sure if this is just incidental, but:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Researcher-High-death-rate-puzzling-behavior-in-BC-orcas--229135551.html

Weird stuff going on with orcas too.

I don't know really, but pollutants tend to get more dangerously concentrated in predators up the food-chain (which may in turn be why sea lions and polar bears are effected, if the radiation is in fact what is harming them?). Even without consuming prey with radioactive materials in them I think orcas are already considered hazardous material if they wash up on shore.

This thread makes me wonder how the release of radioactive material from Fukushima will end up comparing to the long-standing Cold War practice of the Soviets disposing of nuclear waste and at times even entire reactor cores off the Arctic coasts of Novaya Zemliya. The radiation from those waters eventually contaminated much of the North Pacific, getting into things like salmon. Over the long run I don't really know how much of this radioactive material it takes for it to actually have a meaningful health impact on life thousands of miles away.

Either way, I'm curious to better understand the subject.

Regarding the bolded part:

I believe that's called bioaccumulation. In short, plants, and other organisms at the bottom of the food chain receive most of the radiation or poisonous substance that is causing the problem because they make up over 90% of the total "biomass" of the environment. It's spread out over all of the bottom of the food chain, but they still get most of the radiation.

Then, something higher on the food chain eats them. It receives all of the poisonous substance, and will continue to receive it by eating more smaller organisms over its life. It cannot get rid of it, bodies aren't easily able to get rid of things that bioaccumulate (radiation, heavy metals). By the end of it's life, it might very well be full of poison or radiation, if there was enough of it.

Then something even higher on the food chain eats them, and in this mannerism, the poison keeps being concentrated into the top of the food chain. This causes more serious problems than it would if it were spread out over all of the biomass.

I've avoided eating fish since Fukushima, and I'm worried that the consequences of the disaster will stick around for a long time.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Hopefully the radiation spreads to spiders.

[Modernity has failed us]

Hopefully the radiation spreads to spiders.

Seconded. F[inks] spiders.

[courts]

Just another reason to never move the the west coast

like we needed more.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Hopefully the radiation spreads to spiders.

Seconded. F[inks] spiders.

...I was making a Spiderman reference.

[opebo]

Just another reason to never move the the west coast

Yeah its really too bad that it is one of the least awful parts of the Bad Place which has been destroyed.  Totally reprehensible places we'd be better off without such as the South and the Plains remain unscathed, alas.

[Modernity has failed us]

Hopefully the radiation spreads to spiders.

Seconded. F[inks] spiders.

...I was making a Spiderman reference.

Well I was saying that I want all spiders to die.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I'm not exactly a massive advocate of nuclear power or anything, but this looks like absolute bullsh!t of the type that you have to be a credulous cretin to believe.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Yeah.. my guess is that the reduced sockeye salmon population was due to

1)  Overfishing

2)  Long term ocean current changes

3)  Short term ocean temperature changes.  For some reason this past summer, the Pacific ocean's surface temperatures spiked upward.  Things are returning to normal now but the spike was unprecedented and nobody knows why it happened.

Salmon are sensitive to water temperature changes.

[barfbag]

This is pretty bad and I really hope something can be done soon in order to prevent lost lives whether human or animal.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If large numbers of prey are contaminated, the toxins build up until the predator dies from poisoning. #APEnviroScience

Very true, however, cesium is not a heavy metal.  The biological half-life of cesium is far shorter than that of lead, cadmium, or plutonium.  Cesium's is measured in days, the other metals I just mentioned have biological half-lives measured in years.  And if your really worried about cesium contamination, just take some Prussian blue to help flush cesium (and some other metals) from the body.