Sat Post #1: PBS examines the mysterious epidemic devastating the west coast starfish population

PBS out of Seattle is examining the mysterious epidemic devastating the local starfish population.

Starfish, also known as sea stars, are wasting away by the tens of thousands, not just in Puget Sound, but up and down North America’s Pacific Coast. And nobody knows why. It seems the Sea stars are experiencing a mass die off all the way from Southern California to Alaska, with mortality rates up of 97% according to biologists. The die off has spread in a matter of 2 months, from just a few areas, to the whole Pacific ocean coast.

Shortly after the Washington State observations, a mass die-off of both Sunflower stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) and sun stars (Solaster dawsoni) was observed in the waters around Vancouver, BC at the end of August and the beginning of September, 2013.

At first, only a certain species known as the sunflower star seemed to be affected. Then it hit another species, then another. In all, about a dozen species of sea stars are dying along the West Coast. It’s been coined sea star wasting syndrome.

But researchers say it’s too early to connect these outbreaks.

In addition we note that back in August, Washington's blog posted an article asking: Is Fukushima Radiation Contaminating Tuna, Salmon and Herring On the West Coast of North America?, an article in which Washington draws attention to various other developments in the waters off our coast.

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Fri Post #1: More West Coast Fukushima radiation stories in the news

More on the Fukushima radiation story hitting Vancouver and the North American west coast as the topic hits mainstream media.

You will recall we posted two days ago about the approaching plume of radiation in the ocean from the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.

We also referenced an NBC story about how something is killing all the starfish all up and down the west coast of North America.

In another disturbing development is this news story telling us something is also killing off all the oysters and scallops off the BC coast: Mystery surrounds massive die-off of oysters and scallops off B.C. coast:

Something is killing oysters and scallops in dramatic numbers, causing suppliers to warn of shortages and producers to worry about the future of their businesses. The cause is unknown, but ocean acidification is the main suspect.

"The water is clean… we haven’t had any environmental concerns, so I’m not sure what’s going on,” said Mr. Perrault, who owns Little Wing Oysters and is president of the BC Shellfish Grower’s Association.

Yesterday we told you about the respected Scientific American Magazine  which had just published an article titled "Radioactive Isotopes from Fukushima Meltdown Detected near Vancouver"

On another front, News1130 ran a story asking: How much radiation testing is being done in BC? - Doctors maintain there is no threat to British Columbians:

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Experts continue to insist we’re under no threat, despite low-level radiation from Japan being found off the BC Coast in recent months.

Radiation from Japan’s Fukushima plant meltdown three years ago has reached our offshore waters, according to the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Nova Scotia.

Provincial Health officer Dr. Perry Kendall is among those saying it’s nothing to worry about. “All of the experts that I’ve consulted with both in Canada and in the US say there is no concern.

While Jay Ritchilin of the David Suzuki Foundation agrees there is no immediate concern, he says government monitoring remains minimal.

“A proactive government response with active monitoring, regular communication, some education about what various levels of radiation do and don’t mean, just seems to me to be something you would expect a government to do,” he tells us.

Ritchilin adds most of the research comes from independent groups.

CBC picked up on the radiation testing theme and published this piece: Fukushima radiation on B.C. coast measured by crowdsourcing - Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution recruite 'citizen scientists' to collect data. The most stunning part is that an American Oceanographic Institute is calling on civilians to do water testing because government isn't:

People along the British Columbia coast are being asked to step in where governments in Canada and the U.S. have not — to measure radiation from Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in B.C.'s ocean waters.

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass., are calling on the public to collect data from B.C.'s oceans for a crowd-funded research project.

The website ourradioactiveocean.org is recruiting "citizen scientists," ordinary people who can raise $600 for a home testing kit and then take water samples to return to Woods Hole for analysis.

"I think it's important to get measurements, and since the governments aren't doing it, we thought the public has a large concern we'd ask them help collect and fund the sampling," said Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute researcher Ken Buesseler.

Although it has been urged, Buesseler says there is incomplete monitoring, and little data, for radiation in Pacific coastal waters from either Canadian or American authorities.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada have taken measurements along the coast up to 1500 km west of Vancouver for cesium 134.

Isotopes from the meltdown three years ago were predicted by some to reach North America this year.

"There's a great alarm, when you don't know. People can speculate all kinds of things," said Buesseler.

Early results appear to be good news.

Eight samples are already in, exclusively showing isotopes from natural sources, or nuclear weapons testing from decades ago.

"But we think it's important to monitor that so people have some confidence that the waters are safe," Buesseler said.

He said from the available models and data, levels of Cesium-134 are well below levels considered safe to drink. Scientists do not believe radiation from Fukushima will cross the ocean in anything more than trace amounts.

He said the institute decided to fill the gap in information because dire warnings online of the potential impact of radiation from Fukushima was generating too much public fear, without any data to base it on.

As always, we'll keep an eye out for more news on this issue.

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Thursday Post #1: Scientific American Magazine - "Radioactive Isotopes from Fukushima Meltdown Detected near Vancouver"

Following up on yesterday's post, we note that Scientific American Magazine published an article on Feb. 25th, 2014 titled  "Radioactive Isotopes from Fukushima Meltdown Detected near Vancouver"

The subheading stresses that "the levels of radiation detected are well below the safety limit for drinking water". 

Radiation from Japan's leaking Fukushima nuclear power plant has reached waters offshore Canada, researchers said today at the annual American Geophysical Union's Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu.

Two radioactive cesium isotopes, cesium-134 and cesium-137, have been detected offshore of Vancouver, British Columbia, researchers said at a news conference. The detected concentrations are much lower than the Canadian safety limit for cesium levels in drinking water, said John Smith, a research scientist at Canada's Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Tests conducted at U.S. beaches indicate that Fukushima radioactivity has not yet reached Washington, California or Hawaii, said Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Mass.

"We have results from eight locations, and they all have cesium-137, but no cesium-134 yet," Buesseler said. (Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. In this case, cesium-137 has more neutrons than cesium-134.)

The scientists are tracking a radioactive plume from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Three nuclear reactors at the power plant melted down after the March 11, 2011, Tohoku earthquake. The meltdown was triggered by the massive tsunami that followed the quake.

The initial nuclear accident from the Fukushima reactors released several radioactive isotopes, such as iodine-131, cesium-134 and cesium-137. Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years and remains in the environment for decades. Cesium-134, with a half-life of only two years, is an unequivocal marker of Fukushima ocean contamination, Smith said.

"The only cesium-134 in the North Pacific is there from Fukushima," he said. Cesium-137, on the other hand, is also present from nuclear weapons tests and discharge from nuclear power plants.

Smith and his colleagues tracked rising levels of cesium-134 at several ocean monitoring stations west of Vancouver in the North Pacific beginning in 2011. By June 2013, the concentration reached 0.9 Becquerels per cubic meter, Smith said. All of the cesium-134 was concentrated in the upper 325 feet (100 m) of the ocean, he said. They are awaiting results from a February 2014 sampling trip.

The U.S. safety limit for cesium levels in drinking water is about 28 Becquerels, the number of radioactive decay events per second, per gallon (or 7,400 Becquerels per cubic meter). For comparison, uncontaminated seawater contains only a few Becquerels per cubic meter of cesium.

Cesium-137 levels at U.S. beaches were 1.3 to 1.7 Becquerels per cubic meter, Buesseler said. That's similar to background levels in the ocean from nuclear weapons testing, suggesting the Fukushima plume has not reached the U.S. coastline yet, he said.

The new monitoring data does not show which of two competing models best predicts the future concentration of Fukushima radiation along the U.S. West Coast, Smith said. These models suggest that radionuclides from Fukushima will begin to arrive on the West Coast in early 2014 and peak in 2016. However, the models differ in their predictions of the peak concentration of cesium — from a low of 2 to a maximum of 27 Becquerels per cubic meter. Both peaks are well below the highest level recorded in the Baltic Sea after Chernobyl, which was 1,000 Becquerels per cubic meter.

"It's still a little too early to know which one is correct," Smith said.

Fukushima’s radiation reached coastal Canada first because of the powerful Kuroshio Current, which flows from Japan across the Pacific. The plume will then flow down the coast of North America and circle back toward Hawaii, models predict.

The impending arrival of radioactive contaminants from Fukushima has raised concerns among coastal residents in the United States and Canada. But oceanographers and radiation experts say the radiation levels will be too low to threaten human health.

"These levels are clearly not a human or biological threat in Canada," Smith said.

But Buesseler thinks even low levels of contamination merit monitoring, both for human health information and for the wealth of data about Pacific Ocean currents such monitoring could provide. On Jan. 14, he launched a website called "How Radioactive is Our Ocean?", where the public can make tax-deductible donations to support the analysis of existing water samples, or propose and fund new sampling locations along the West Coast.

And at Fukushima, radioactive water continues to escape from the damaged power plant into the ocean. A new leak was reported last week, although that one did not empty into the ocean.

As mentioned yesterday, we will continue to follow this story and update with items of interest.

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Wed Post #1: Fukushima’s radiation is approaching the West Coast

Yet another reason for offshore money not to be invested in Vancouver real estate comes with the latest scare about nuclear radiation.

In case you missed it yesterday, Bloomberg is reporting that radiation from the Tsunami damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has been "significantly undercounted." Of particular concern for us on the Wet Coast is that the radioactive plum of water from the damaged reactor will be hitting our shores, possibly as soon as April.

How dangerous is that plume (shown above in a computer generator model)?

At the moment, no one is sure.

So far only minute traces of radiation have been recorded in British Columbia waters. This will increase as contaminants disperse eastwards on Pacific currents. But scientists are quick to stress that even the peak measurements will be well within the limits set by safety authorities.

Notwithstanding those assurances, serious concerns are being raised and alarms bells are sounding in the eco system.

Back in December 2013, NBC reported on a mass dying of starfish on the West Coast. As NBC noted, "starfish are dying in record numbers."

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From the news clip:

Brian Williams, anchor: Environmental officials in California say there’s been another highly troubling report about what’s going on in the Pacific. Something is killing the starfish and they don’t know why. They have been dying in record numbers on the West Coast. [...] 

Pete Raimondi, marine biologist: It’s happened so rapidly that some species are just missing. [...] 

Miguel Almaguer, reporter: An epidemic affecting waters from Alaska to Southern California causing millions of starfish to fall apart and melt away. [...] Two species that used to thrive here have now vanished. [...] 

Raimondi: I’ve had probably 100 emails thus far saying, ‘Well, what about Fukushima, because of radiation?’ We haven’t ruled that out yet, but we’re clearly not ruling that in. 

Almaguer: The mysterious disease has now spread to at least 10 species of starfish and is threatening more every day.

On KRCB, Raimondi was interviewed on Nov. 21, 2013 and said:

There’s something about this outbreak that is very, very different [...] It’s always been associated with warm water in the past — an El Nino event. We’re not in an El Nino event. [...] There’s 2 things that are really bewildering. One, we aren’t in an El Nino event. The second thing is the spatial thing, from Alaska down to Orange County. It’s hard to think of a mechanism that is consistent across that whole area of geography.

Something is killing off our Starfish.  Is it the nuclear radiation from Fukushima? Or is it simply a coincidence?

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Wed Post #2:Typhoon Wipha hits Japan; catastrophe avoided at Fukushima

Following up on yesterday's post about a 'once-in-a-decade' Typhoon hitting Japan and the threat it posed to the Tsunami-ravaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, it appears the storm has now passed.

Good news for both Japan and the Village on the Edge of the Rainforest which would be impacted by any radiation spewing into the atmosphere.

From The Guardian newspaper:

TyphoonWipha has killed 17 people so far and more than 50 are missing. Izu Oshima, an island south of Tokyo was worst hit, suffering landslides and flooding. During the height of the storm, more than 500 flights at Tokyo's Haneda and Narita airports were cancelled, and thousands of schools closed. About 20,000 people were told to leave their homes because of the danger of flooding . Typhoon Wipha was the worst storm to hit the region since October 2004.

In a follow up article from The Guardian: Typhoon Wipha wreaks deadly destruction on Japan

A typhoon has killed 17 people in Japan, but largely spared the capital and brushed by the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power station.

More than 50 people were missing after typhoon Wipha roared up Japan's east coast, including two schoolboys engulfed by waves on a beach; 20 more were hurt by falls or being struck by flying debris. About 20,000 people were told to leave their homes because of the danger of flooding and hundreds of flights were cancelled.

Sixteen people were killed on Izu Oshima island, about 75 miles (120km) south of Tokyo, as rivers burst their banks. The storm set off mudslides along a mile-long stretch of mountains.

Wipha sustained winds of 78mph (126km/h) with gusts up to 180km/h.

The storm brought hurricane-force winds and torrential rain to the Tokyo metropolitan area of 30 million people at the peak of the morning rush-hour.

The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Corp, cancelled all offshore work and secured machinery as the storm approached.

The operator, known as Tepco, has been struggling to contain radioactive leaks since a 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused extensive damage and triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

A Tepco spokesman said Typhoon Wipha had caused no new problems at the plant, which is on the coast 130 miles (220km) north of Tokyo.

The storm dumped heavy rain that had to be pumped out of protective containers at the base of about 1,000 tanks storing radioactive water, the byproduct of a jerry-rigged cooling system designed to control wrecked reactors.

The rainwater was checked for radioactivity and released into the sea, the company spokesman said.

Wipha has been down-graded to a tropical depression.

The photo above shows a man walking near collapsed houses following a landslide caused by Typhoon Wipha on Izu Oshima island, south of Tokyo.

From The Japan Times:

Typhoon Wipha brought strong winds and heavy rain to the Tokyo metropolitan area early Wednesday, shutting down large portions of the region’s transportation network.

On Izu Oshima Island in the Pacific about 120 km south of Tokyo, at least 13 bodies were found and around 20 people were missing after several houses collapsed amid record rainfall of 122.5 mm per hour, according to local authorities and police.

In Machida, Tokyo, a woman believed to be in her 40s died after being swept away by a swollen river, police said.

Air travel was heavily disrupted. Japan Airlines grounded 189 domestic flights while All Nippon Airways scrapped 211 domestic and international flights.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it took steps to deal with water inside barriers around tanks storing radioactive water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Tepco has set tentative limits on radioactive materials in water around the tanks and will release water inside their barriers if radiation levels are below those ceilings. The ceilings are 25 becquerels per liter for cesium-137, 15 becquerels for cesium-134 and 10 becquerels for strontium-90.

All of the ceilings are one-third of the legal thresholds for the release of water into the sea.

At the tank areas where high radioactivity levels were detected, water near the tanks will be transferred to a newly build 4,000-ton makeshift tank.

With the storm now heading towards Alaska it appears further catastrophe, thankfully, has been avoided for now.

Below is some raw footage from Japan:



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From bad to worse: Once-in-a-decade Typhoon threatens Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant

For those who follow the VW twitter feed, you know that one faithful reader (@Travel_Uruguay) has been a keen follower of the developments around the Fukushima nuclear power plant since the devastating earthquake/Tsunami of March 11, 2011.

Last week a tweet was received from TU regarding an article on the website ENENEWS, which headlined: Pro-Nuclear Expert: Typhoon collapsing Fukushima fuel pool “a very real concern — I don’t know what it is they’re doing about that”

And almost as if on cue, the world is watching this morning as news organizations like Reuters report: A once-in-a-decade typhoon threatened Japan on Tuesday, disrupting travel and shipping and forcing precautions to be taken at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Japan is currently being assaulted by Typhoon Wipha which is moving across the Pacific straight towards the capital, Tokyo, and is expected to make landfall during the morning rush hour bringing hurricane-force winds to the metropolitan area of 30 million people.

The center of the storm was 860 km (535 miles) southwest of Tokyo at 0800 GMT, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on its website. It was moving north-northeast at 35 kph (22 mph).

The storm had weakened as it headed north over the sea but was still packing sustained winds of about 140 kph (87 mph) with gusts as high as 194 kph (120 mph), the agency said.

The agency issued warnings for Tokyo of heavy rain, flooding and gales, and advised people to be prepared to leave their homes quickly and to avoid unnecessary travel.

A spokesman for the meteorological agency said the storm was a "once in a decade event".

The typhoon is expected to sweep through northern Japan after making landfall and to pass near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, on the coast 220 km (130 miles) northeast of Tokyo, later on Wednesday.

Typhoon Wipha is the strongest storm to approach eastern Japan since October 2004. That cyclone triggered floods and landslides that killed almost 100 people, forced thousands from their homes and caused billions of dollars in damage.

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