Fukushima

Record radiation levels found in fish caught off Fukushima

A pair of rock trout have shown the highest level of radioactive cesium detected in fish and shellfish caught in waters off Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, its operator said Tuesday.

Japan Today,

22 August, 2012

The fish, caught 20 kilometers offshore from the plant on Aug 1, registered 25,800 becquerels of cesium per kilo, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said—258 times the level the government deems safe for consumption.

The previous record in fish and shellfish off Fukushima was 18,700 becquerels per kilo detected in cherry salmon, according to the government’s Fisheries Agency.

TEPCO said the trout might have fed in radioactive hotspots and that it would sample more of the fish, their feed and the seabed soil in the area in the coming weeks to determine the cause of the high radiation.

Fishermen have been allowed since June to catch—on an experimental basis—two kinds of fish and shellfish, but only in areas more than 50 kilometers off the plant.

Those catches have shown only small amounts of radioactivity.

Rock trout have not been caught by fishermen off Fukushima since the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 triggered meltdowns in reactors at the plant.