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Fukushima radiation and the marine food chain

there is a very strong likelihood that caesium, iodine and strontium could accumulate in the food chain from phytoplankton and algae to edible fish.

The World Today – Scientists monitor fallout from Fukushima 04/04/2011 The World Today , 4 April 11, ELEANOR HALL: Conservation groups and marine scientists say they remain very concerned about the ocean fallout from Japan’s crippled nuclear plant. The Japanese government says it could take months to stop radiation leaking from the plant.

Australian researchers monitoring the disaster say they’re concerned about radioactive elements accumulating in the Pacific Ocean food chain, as Adrienne Francis reports.
The anti-nuclear movement in Japan has been energised by the disaster.

Protester Mayoko Nakahara.

MAYOKO NAKAHARA (translated): I’ve had worries about Japan’s nuclear policies for some time and if we don’t take advantage of this opportunity, who knows when our movement will have this much energy again so I am here now to say you must get rid of nuclear energy…….

ADRIENNE FRANCIS: However, Australian coral reef scientists say the possible marine impacts may be underestimated.

Dr Clive Wilkinson says the interplay between the kuroshio and oyashio currents, off the coast of Japan, is complex.

CLIVE WILKINSON: These two currents often form eddies or gyres and these gyres can persist for weeks at a time. Such that, anything coming out of that reactor will be entrained in these gyres, which means there is a lot of time for it to be taken up by plankton and things that eat plankton such as zooplankton. Then by little fish, bigger fish and eventually up to tuna.

ADRIENNE FRANCIS: Dr Clive Wilkinson leads a group of passionate researchers and concerned government policy makers, called the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.

He says there is a very strong likelihood that caesium, iodine and strontium could accumulate in the food chain from phytoplankton and algae to edible fish.
CLIVE WILKINSON: I wouldn’t be particularly concerned about them causing kills. My concern would be as they are magnified up the food chain. So iodine would be eventually washed out of the system because it has only got an eight day half life. But things like caesium, strontium, tellurium, barium – they could be incorporated into the food chain.
The World Today – Scientists monitor fallout from Fukushima 04/04/2011

April 5, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Japan