By Alexander Higgins
Marine and land life in Alaska is being sickened and dieing off from an unknown causes as a wave of Fukushima nuclear radiation heads toward the coast of California.
The raw story just ran a corporate media article acknowledging the discovery of Iodine radiation in kelp off the coast of California.
The story added few details to what has already been widely reported in the alternative media. Most notably was the iodine was first detected in the water within a month of the Fukushima meltdown and the double speak over the safety because the levels are supposedly relatively low. Relative to what?
Radiation from Japan found in kelp off U.S. West Coast
LOS ANGELES — Radioactive iodine was found in kelp off the US West Coast following last year’s earthquake-triggered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown, according to a new study.
It was already known that radioactive iodine 131 (131-I), carried in the atmosphere, made it across the Pacific within days of the March 11, 2011 tsunami disaster, albeit in minuscule amounts.
But marine biologists at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) discovered the radioactive isotope in ocean kelp, which is “one of the strongest plant accumulators of iodine,” within a month of the accident.
“We measured significant, although most likely non-harmful levels of radioactive iodine in tissue of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera,” said Steven L. Manley, author of the study with Christopher G. Lowe
“Although it is probably not harmful for humans because it was relatively low levels, it may have affected certain fish that graze on the tissue because fish have a thyroid system that utilizes iodine.”
[…]
Source: Raw Story
What was most notable about the story was the following comment which points out the polar bears in Alaska are losing their fur and there are marine die-offs occurring in the Gulf of Alaska.
Anyone talking about the recent strange illness involving polar bears losing their fur? The reported marine die-offs in the Gulf of Alaska?
http://www.alaskapublic.org/20…
Polar Bears Show Signs of Mysterious Illness
Polar bears with Alopecia and skin lesions in the Beaufort Sea. March 21, 2012. Photo courtesy USGS.
Biologists have found Polar Bears in the Beaufort Sea with hair loss and skin lesions. Those are the same symptoms that have sickened ice seals and walruses in the arctic since last summer and led the federal government to declare the incident an unusual mortality event. Scientists are just beginning an investigation into whether polar bears are suffering from the same thing.
“The first day we observed it was on March 21st and we had three captures and two of them had Alopecia, which is the skin loss and so it was like, ‘oh that’s interesting.’ Then we started picking it up on other animals in later march so it was like, this is more than normal.”
So far, the field scientists have found hair loss on nine of the 33 bears they’ve captured. The bears have skin lesions on their head, neck and ears. Degange says they have found polar bears with similar symptoms since 1999, but the number of effected bears makes this year unusual:
“The bears appear to be healthy otherwise. We haven’t seen any dead bears, so its not a mortality event as far as we know. But the fact that its occurring at the same time as this unexplained mortality event with seals certainly raises the interest level.”
The biologists collected blood and tissues from the affected bears to try to figure out if the symptoms are related to the mysterious illness that has been found in ice seals and walruses. Dozens of seals have died from the disease, but no walrus deaths are attributed to it. Scientists don’t know yet if the walrus and seals are suffering from the same thing. Although the veterinary pathologist who has done most of the necropsies on the animals say the lesions look very similar under the microscope. Julie Speegle is a spokesperson for the National Marine Fisheries Service. She says its been a difficult case:
“We still don’t know what is causing the disease. But our scientists have ruled out a number of bacteria and viruses that are known to affect marine mammals.”
Speegle says the latest tests to turn up negative were for two toxins that can cause harmful algae blooms.
“So just a couple more possible causes of illness that we have ruled out and we continue to go forward with studying samples and trying to find out what is causing this disease.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…
Scientists baffled after finding polar bears in Arctic with sores and patchy fur
Polar bears have been spotted with sores and missing patches of fur, causing concern among wildlife experts that a mystery disease had become widespread in the species.
Nine bears were being studied by biologists carrying out work along the Arctic coast to see if the condition was related to similar symptoms in seals and walruses.
The bears were among 33 seen near Barrow, Alaska and according to the U.S. Geological Survey, the polar bears had ‘alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions’.
Mystery illness: Nine polar bears have been discovered with evidence of alopecia and skin lesions near Barrow, Alaska
Tony DeGange, the chief biologist for the USGS in Alaska, told Reuters: ‘There’s a lot we don’t know yet whether we’re dealing with something that’s different or something that’s the same.’
Last summer, an unusually high number of 60 ring seals and several walruses were found dead in the same area with hair loss and sores.
No dead polar bears have yet been found by scientists.
USGS stated: ‘Despite extensive testing for a wide variety of well known infectious agents, the cause(s) of the observed condition in walruses and ice seals remains unknown.
Plus the 5 million tons of contaminated flotsam on the way across the Pacific headed towards the northwest.
http://enenews.com/us-govt-get…
Dangerous Radioactive ‘Wave’ To Hit Entire US Food Supply By Next Year
It is chilling when we realize that the catastrophe has only begun and that the spent fuel ponds in the damaged reactor buildings are in danger of collapse.
http://enenews.com/radioactive…
http://enenews.com/breaking-ma…
http://enenews.com/former-un-a…
General coverage here: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/