Nuclear World Network

Nuclear World Network


Arctic Ice Seals & Alaska Marine Science Symposium’s Failure to Disclose - Nuclear World Network

April 06, 2015

In today's episode Marti is flying solo. She discusses the effects of radiation on Arctic ice seals and what you can do to help. She talks about the law of selective uptake and a shares a few low-fat potato recipes that you can serve as a meal and then brown bag the leftovers.

The Effects of Radiation on Arctic Ice Seals
Five days after the Fukushima meltdown, it became evident that Fukushima fallout was transported via the wind currents to the northern Bering and Chukcki seas. In January 2014, Dr. Doug Dasher, John Kelley, Gay Sheffield, and Raphaela Stimmelmayr presented a study at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium titled, “2011 Fukushima Fallout: Aerial Deposition on the Sea Ice Scenario and Wildlife Health Implications to Ice-Associated Seals.” According to this study, the fallout “included a large release of airborne radionuclides into the environment.” By the summer of 2011, it became clear that there was an unusual disease affecting “several different species of Arctic ice-associated seals.”
In the Nome and Barrow areas, seals began to exhibit symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning: lethargy, skin lesions, and failure to grow new hair, which spurred the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) to declare “an Alaska Northern Pinnipeds Usual Mortality Event (UME) in late winter of 2011.” While authorities search among a host of pathological disease possibilities, one thing is known for sure: “Radionuclides would have been settled onto sea ice. Sea ice and snow would have acted as a temporary refuge for deposited radionuclides; thus radionuclides would have only become available for migration during the melting season and would not have entered the regional food web in any appreciable manner until breakup.” This means that the fallout landed on the ice and entered the sea upon melting. “The cumulative on-ice exposure for ice seals would have occurred through external, inhalation, and non-equilibrium dietary pathways during the ice-based seasonal spring haulout period for molting/pupping/breeding activities.” Ice seals would have been exposed to radiation when they got on the ice. They would have been exposed through their skin, they would have inhaled radioactive particles, and they would have ingested contaminated fish. Essentially, this amounts to what I would call a triple whammy—external exposure through skin contact, and internal exposure through inhalation and ingestion.
In the paper (which has suspiciously disappeared from the internet), the authors reveal the “results on gamma analysis (cesium-137 and 134) of muscle tissue from control and diseased seals, and discuss wildlife health implications from different possible routes of exposure to Fukushima fallout to ice seals.” As much as I tried, I was unable to locate the results of cesium-137 and 134 uptake in ice seal muscle tissue. However, I was able to find the conference website that included a list of recordings from the event; but upon inspection, I was unable to find the link to the paper or the recording of the presentation. It is interesting to note that the list of sponsors include stakeholders who have a vested interest in keeping a lid on the presence of radionuclides in Alaskan waters.

Please go to http://amss.nprb.org/program-schedule/agenda/ (http://amss.nprb.org/program-schedule/agenda/) Then look to the right and you'll see the Program/Schedule box. Click on the green feedback button in green in the box. Politely tell them that you are interested in obtaining the complete study written by Dr. Doug Dasher, John Kelley, Gay Sheffield, and Raphaela Stimmelmayr titled, 2011 Fukushima Fallout: Aerial Deposition on the Sea Ice Scenario and Wildlife Health Implications to Ice-Associated Seals that was presented in the 2014 symposium. Let's see what kind of response we get.
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