Reading time: 12,485 words, 35 pages, 29 to 49 minutes.
Updated April 12, 2015 with charts from Zero Hedge (H/T Ken J.)

Updated June 27,2015: The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) retracted its earlier announcement and admitted that the warming of the Pacific is NOT caused by El Nino but they kept it quiet. I suppose if they broadcast it, someone might ask the embarrassing question that if it’s not El Nino then what, in fact, is causing the warming of the Pacific?

The Pacific Ocean is dying. I’ve been warning about the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster for four years and now its deadly consequences are more apparent every day.

Fukushima’s weapons-grade radioactive aerial fall-out and contaminated ocean currents are bioaccumulating in phytoplankton; the bottom (beginning) of the food chain. As well, it weakens the Pacific marine life’s immune systems making them more susceptible to bacterial, viral and parasitic infestation leading to death and ultimately species extinction by exacerbating existing conditions like climate change, ocean warming, pollution, over-development and over-harvesting. Life in and around the Pacific Ocean is dying.
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Brief Background to the Fukushima Disaster

The earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011 caused three of the six nuclear reactors in operation at the Fukushima power plants to lose coolant, overheat, melt down, melt through their containment structures causing all three buildings to explode and a fourth to repeatedly catch fire. It’s possible that at least one achieved a critical event (‘prompt criticality’ per Arnie Gundersen) that blew the melted fuel rods over parts of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. Xenon gas isotopes 133 and 135 (half-life: five days and nine hours) were found eight months later indicating continuing fission. The fuel rods (coriums) that did not explode, melted through the concrete structure and into the ground where they remain unrecovered to this day spewing their deadly poison into our environment.

The Fukushima disaster caused two distinct radioactive contamination events. Initially in 2011, fallout covered much of Northeast Japan while prevailing winds carried radioactive contamination over the Pacific ocean, then North American and eventually contaminating the Northern hemisphere.

The “official” reports of radioactive contamination were greatly understated. They were based on only the first four days of the disaster during which only 25% of the radioactive contamination was released. We now know that the melt-downs released vastly greater amounts of radioactive contamination; 75% occurred in the following two weeks as you can see in this NHK video.

The second event is still on-going. Seawater was used to cool the overheated reactors. Radioactive seawater poured into the ocean while about 436,000 cubic meters of contaminated water are stored at the site in about 1,200 hastily erected and leaking tanks.

In addition to rain washing radioactive contamination from Japan’s soil into rivers that carry it into the ocean, there is groundwater flowing from the mountains carrying contamination from the power plants’ leaking basements as well as from the subterranean coriums into the ocean. Dr. Helen Caldicott says there is “no end in sight for this dreadful catastrophe. About 300 to 400 tons of radioactive water per day are pouring into the Pacific, have been for the last 3 years, and will continue probably for the rest of time…” This supposed volume of ‘leakage’ is vastly underestimated as will be discussed shortly.

Last August, SimplyInfo reported that “TEPCO made the startling admission … that the plant is leaking 8 billion bequerels per day. (8 gigabequerels)

5 billion bq of strontium 90
2 billion bq of cesium 137
1 billion bq of tritium [150]
… This daily release would add up to 11,680,000,000,000 = 11 terabequerels over 4 years time in addition to the initial sea releases during the meltdowns.” To put that into perspective, Japanese government’s limit for food does not allow over 100 bq per kilogram. Since TEPCO have been repeatedly exposed as congenital liars, and we have no independent, third-party verification, the real ‘leakage’ is far greater.

In October, 2014 Science Direct released a review if the Fukushima disaster: “As for gaseous fission product 133Xe, it is estimated that nearly 100% of the core inventory might have been released into the atmosphere. In addition, about 16% of the 137Cs inventory flowed into the sea when the contaminated water used for cooling the decay heat of the units 1–3 overflowed the reactors. Therefore, even though almost three years have passed since the accident, it is still having a tremendous impact not only on Japan but all over the world as well.”

Government and nuclear industry propaganda continues to downplay the severity of the Fukushima disaster. For instance, some reports state “It also resulted in the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl” or such similar hogwash. Then, adding insult to injury, government and industry-manipulated Wikipedia downplays the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 where, supposedly almost nobody died which, while being technically true, completely ignores the many radiation and cancer deaths afterwards.

The chart below from SimplyInfo compares Fukushima with Chernobyl in PBq (petabecquerel, 〖10〗^15 Bq) of radiation.

The first pink bar is from the congenital liars at TEPCO. The second green bar is a more realistic estimate for Fukushima and the blue is Chernobyl. Don’t forget, Fukushima is still releasing radioactive contamination; Chernobyl isn’t so Fukushima’s green bar will continue growing. Chernobyl essentially stopped releasing contamination after the fire was extinguished in 1986 whereas Fukushima is ongoing and likely forever. As well, the area of Fukushima’s contamination greatly exceeds Chernobyl’s evacuation area.

The ass media first downplayed and now ignore Fukushima’s obvious risks. American University analyzed “more than 2,000 news articles from four major U.S. outlets … Only 6 percent of the coverage … focused on health risks to the public in Japan or elsewhere. Human risks were framed, instead, in terms of workers in the disabled nuclear plant … three primary ways in which the news outlets minimized the risk posed by radioactive contamination to the general population. Articles made comparisons to mundane, low-level forms of radiation; defined the risks as unknowable, given the lack of long-term studies; and largely excluded concerns expressed by experts and residents who challenged the dominant narrative.”

The Fukushima disaster is far more severe than Chernobyl. Chernobyl had one reactor melt-down whereas Fukushima had three while a fourth storing large quantities of spent fuel caught fire several times.

Arnie Gundersen, nuclear expert and chief engineer at Fairewinds confirms that “Recent scientific studies from Japan show that 75% of the radiation created by the meltdowns was released more than 5 days after the catastrophe… This data… shows that the total gaseous and liquid radioactive releases from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown exceed the radiation released during and after the Chernobyl meltdown.”

And, Dr. Chris Busby estimates that “Fukushima released an estimated 50 times the radiation of Chernobyl…” And, Fukushima hasn’t stopped poisoning our environment. It will probably continue doing so forever because we lack the technology to recover the molten underground coriums as well as the technology to filter all the radioactive contamination from water stored at Fukushima.

Worse still, Fukushima used a mixed oxide fuel (MOX fuel) containing plutonium whereas Chernobyl did not. Plutonium is the most poisonous substance known and has a half-life of 24,000 years. According to Dr. Helen Caldicott, one pound of plutonium distributed evenly would cause cancer in the entire earth’s human population. Estimates vary, but according to Arnie Gundersen there was anywhere from 1 to 4 TONS of plutonium at Fukushima. How much of that remains and how much is in the ground, on the soil, in the air and ocean is anyone’s guess.

Most of the governments’ monitoring is done on Cesium (aka Caesium) which is dangerous enough but plutonium takes the prize as the most deadly. There are more than a thousand different radioactive isotopes. More on plutonium shortly.

The Times headline “Japan faces 200-year wait for Fukushima clean-up” reports “The chief of the Fukushima nuclear power station has admitted that the technology needed to decommission three melted-down reactors does not exist, and he has no idea how it will be developed.” On a slightly brighter note, The Telegraph reported, “Experts have already estimated that process will take three decades but progress to date has been slow.” What an understatement!

The monumental incompetence of the power plants’ owners and operators, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), is evident in compounding a natural disaster (earthquake and tsunami) into a nuclear disaster in the first place and the numerous failed attempts to deal with it as I’ve outlined in several previous articles here, and here and here.

In 2014, Cesium-134 (1/2 life 2 years) was found in B.C.’s Fraser Valley. so we know contamination is still being released and transported by wind. This past January 2015, a radioactive release of plutonium dubbed “Death Ashes” in Japan was detected in North America and, not surprisingly, received little ass media coverage.

In February radiation levels spiked “between 50 and 70 times higher than Fukushima’s already elevated radioactive status…” and in March, RT reported that another 750 tons of highly contaminated surface water leaked into the Pacific. This is another example of ‘Fukushima Forever’.

All this is in addition to the contaminated groundwater leaking into the ocean every day. Since TEPCO admits this and since they continually lie, deny, cover-up, stone-wall and under-report everything else, the radioactive contamination pouring into the Pacific is many times worse than reported as I will demonstrate shortly.

Other fuel rod ingredients like Uranium 238 have a half-life of 4 billion years. To put that into perspective, the earth is 4.5 billion years old. In terms of a single human life-span, many of these other substances are essentially dangerous forever when you multiply their half-lives by ten to reach a safe level as per Dr. Helen Caldicott. The sun will go nova long before uranium and many other radionuclides are safe.

RT reported on a “series of articles published in the latest of US science magazine Journal of Heredity, researches revealed the widespread impact of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster on biological organisms in the region … A growing body of empirical results from studies of birds, monkeys, butterflies, and other insects suggests that some species have been significantly impacted by the radioactive releases related to the Fukushima disaster … Scientists of all the studies agreed that chronic low-dose exposure to ionizing radiation leads to genetic damage and increased mutation rates in reproductive and non-reproductive cells.”

All but one of the remaining Fukushima power plants still contain spent fuel; fuel rods that have lost about 10% to 20% of their original power. Spent fuel still remains dangerous for centuries. Fukushima contained between 12 to 20 times the nuclear fuel as Chernobyl. Once again, how much of that remains on site and how much is in the ground, on the soil, in the air and oceans is anyone’s guess. TEPCO is not talking and it’s unlikely that they know because the destroyed complexes are still too dangerous for humans and rubble-strewn for robots to examine.

Little discussed is that radioactively-contaminated Japan still plans to host the 2020 Olympics, As this will be nine years after the Fukushima disaster and several years after the latency period for some cancers, I suspect the increase in cancers will cause some alarm before then.
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Linear vs. Organic Thinking

We have difficulty understanding the ramification of this disaster because our brains are hardwired for linear thinking. We seek single, simple answers. Life in the Pacific Ocean is complex and its mass die-offs require mulit-level, organic thinking to understand. There are many different factors involved and, although no one factor is entirely responsible for the Pacific’s dying, the synergistic effect of many factors combined has pushed the Pacific Ocean past the tipping point.

As you read the reports and links below on the mass strandings and mass die-offs, you’ll see scientists and so-called experts point to various single, simple factors such as climate change or warmer water or pollution or farm run-off or over-harvesting, etc. as well as bacteria or viruses or parasites that may be responsible for these events. You’ll also note that not a single so-called expert mentions radioactive contamination. That’s because we are witnessing a major cover-up by governments, the nuclear industry and the ass media’s news blackout. More on that shortly.

For a completely different example of linear thinking, read some of the more than 5,000 readers’ comments on this Washington Post opinion article on climate change (ignore the article itself as it’s mindless drivel). You’ll see many rigid, partisan views. Readers are either for or against climate change. Almost everyone holds a single, simple view. It’s either black or white. However, reality is usually various shades of gray which seems to make some people’s heads hurt.

It’s like asking when did the Ice Age end? Wrong question! We might as well answer, “Yes”. A better answer would be that it wasn’t an event; it was a process. It began about 13,000 years ago and is still on-going because glaciers are still melting. People don’t like that kind of answer because it’s not black or white. This is the same complexity we’ll encounter as we examine the extinction of life in the Pacific Ocean. [Spoiler Alert!] It’s not an event but a long, drawn-out process that began long before the Fukushima disaster and will continue for a long time until [another Spoiler Alert!] we’re left with nothing but jellyfish in the oceans.

Having taken courses on statistical analysis and methodology as well as 6 Sigma training, I was continually reminded how difficult it is to distinguish between causation and correlation and how challenging is the separation of cause and effect. It takes training and effort to determine root cause. It’s like pealing an onion. There are endless layers to peal before we get to the root cause of a problem.

As we examine the reports below, I will demonstrate that many so-called ‘causes’ are in fact the symptoms (effects or results) of deeper, underlying causes. I suspect, too [still another Spoiler Alert!] that simplistic answers are part of the propaganda effort to distract us from [last Spoiler Alert] acknowledging that Fukushima is the final nail in the Pacific’s coffin.
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Bioaccumulation & Biomagnification

To understand the mechanism of contamination (radioactive, chemical or otherwise) all the way up the food chain, let’s examine two terms: ‘bioaccumulation’ and ‘biomagnification’ (aka bio-concentration).

According to Marietta College, “Bioaccumulation refers to how pollutants enter a food chain; biomagnification refers to the tendency of pollutants to concentrate as they move from one trophic level to the next. Here are some definitions of these terms:

“Bioaccumulation: increase in concentration of a pollutant from the environment to the first organism in a food chain.

“Biomagnification: increase in concentration of a pollutant from one link in a food chain to another.”

In other words, the bioaccumulation of contaminants at the beginning of the food chain becomes biomagnified or concentrated as it moves up the food chain. We’ll examine this below with the beginning of the marine food chain: phytoplankton
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Disappearing Plankton

The beginning of the ocean food chain, phytoplankton (tiny plants) bioaccumulate radioactive contamination in small doses as reported by ABC News six months after the Fukushima disaster and Japan Times a year later at points, “500 to 2,100 km from the crippled power plant, between Jan. 14 and Feb. 5, 2012” and in a report two years after the disaster “from all 10 points in the Pacific they checked, with the highest levels at around 25 degrees north latitude and 150 degrees west longitude.” In other words, radioactive contamination had already spread well past Hawaii on its way to North America where it would begin arriving in June 2013 on the ocean currents you can see below

Zooplankton (tiny animals) eat lots of phytoplankton thus biomagnifying the contamination. Tiny fish eat lots of zooplankton thus further increasing the biomagnification. Small fish eat the tiny ones. Big fish eat the small ones and so on, biomagnifying up the food chain to mammals including seals, sea lions, Polar bears and humans. Thus, even small concentrations of contamination at the beginning of the food chain find their way up the food chain in ever high dosages to cause major problems as we shall see shortly as we examine disappearing Pacific Ocean wild-life.

Admittedly, this is a simplified description. There are many variables affecting biomagnification including size and types of organisms, dosage, duration, temperature, salinity, solubility, etc. However, in freshwater experiments described by Fukushima Inform they conclude that “The activity of zooplankton sample from the lake (12.6 Bq kg-1) was lower than maximum activities in the salmon suggesting bioconcentration [biomagnification] in the fish relative to their prey.” In other words, it takes only a little radioactive contamination in plankton at the beginning of the food chain to have a major impact higher up the food chain.

According to a paper for the Woods Hole Institute (WHOI) phytoplankton “take up radioactive contaminants from the seawater that surrounds them. As the phytoplankton are eaten by larger zooplankton, small fish, and larger animals up the food chain, some of the contaminants end up in fecal pellets or other detrital particles that settle to the seafloor. These particles accumulate in sediments, and some radioisotopes contained within them may be remobilized back into the overlying waters through microbial and chemical processes.”

The Benthic boundary layer above the ocean floor contains nutrients, microscopic life and suspended material essential to many species reproductive strategies and larval dispersal. Light usually doesn’t penetrate to the Benthic zone so much of its food supply consists of dead and decaying matter that drifts down to Benthic depths. Kill the phytoplankton and you cut off Benthic food that feeds bivalves like clams, oysters, cockles, mussels, scallops as well as sea stars, snails, cephalopods, crustaceans, sea cucumbers, brittle stars; all of which play an important role as a food source for fish and mammals including humans.

The WHOI paper states, “Marine invertebrates, such as bottom-dwelling starfish and sea urchins, are particularly proficient at absorbing a wide range of ingested radioisotopes…” These bottom-dwellers are among the many life-forms dying in large numbers in the Pacific.

Freshwater fishermen take note. “The chemical properties of radioactive cesium are similar to those of non-radioactive cesium and naturally occurring potassium and sodium, which are abundant in seawater … But potassium and sodium are much less abundant in fresh water, so cesium uptake is much higher in freshwater organisms than in sea life.” Although inland fresh waterways are not affected directly by the Pacific’s radioactively contaminated ocean currents, they have been and are subject to aerial fallout. Although the greatest fallout occurred shortly after the Fukushima melt-downs, TEPCO’s never-ending bungling still releases wind-driven contamination. Also, they’re burning radioactive debris which drifts towards North America on the prevailing winds.

Since governments and the nuclear industry are engaged in a major cover-up (more on this shortly) it’s necessary to go to collaborative sites like Fukushima Inform; an “Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM) Network: A collaborative radiation monitoring network to determine and communicate environmental risks for Canada’s Pacific and Arctic Oceans from the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident”. Experiments on freshwater fish show, “Contamination of these fish will occur through the food chain while direct intake of radioactive cesium from water (through skin, gut, and gills) has little impact on muscle tissue concentrations … Studies of lakes and streams after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 have demonstrated that radiocesium contamination of freshwater fish is can be significant and persist for more than the 10 years … It would not be surprising to find that freshwater fish [in North America] have significantly higher radiocesium than marine species such that avoiding marine fish as a source of protein in favor of freshwater species might increase ones exposure to these isotopes.” Freshwater fishermen (like myself) should limit our intake.

Phytoplankton, being plants, use photosynthesis to obtain carbon by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. Scientific American writes that phytoplankton “produce half the world’s oxygen output—equaling that of trees and plants on land … Researchers at Canada’s Dalhousie University say the global population of phytoplankton has fallen about 40 percent since 1950.”

Let me repeat, phytoplankton produce HALF of our oxygen (others report a higher percentage although exact numbers are difficult to measure) and these oxygen-producing phytoplankton have already declined by 40%. This is alarming to say the least.

Just as critical, it takes three atoms of oxygen to form ozone in the stratosphere. The Canadian Encyclopedia notes that, “The development of the ozone layer is thought to have been a significant factor permitting the evolution of life on Earth. Ozone is the main atmospheric gas that absorbs the biologically damaging part of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation (UV radiation), known as UV-B (ultraviolet-biologically active).” Ozone also absorbs infrared solar radiation so ozone depletion contributes to global warming. In October, 2011 the National Post reported that “A massive Arctic ozone hole opened up over the Northern Hemisphere for the first time this year, an international research team reported …The hole covered two million square kilometres — about twice the size of Ontario — and allowed high levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation to hit large swaths of northern Canada, Europe and Russia …”

Plankton began disappearing long before the Fukushima disaster although it’s notable that their decline hastened with atmospheric nuclear bomb tests that started in the 1950’s. “The [Dalhousie] scientists believe that rising sea surface temperatures are to blame.” I suspect there’s more to this than rising temperatures. Travel a few hundred kilometers further south and sea temperatures are warmer still. Travel further north and it’s colder so a 1 ℃ rise can’t be the whole explanation.

Whatever the reason for the slow plankton die-off, an article in The Atlantic states,
“as temperatures rise the plankton die. As plankton die, they suck up less carbon dioxide, thus warming the earth further. Which causes more plankton to die. Rinse and repeat.”

The disappearing phytoplankton may also play a more direct role in the warming of ocean water. Live plankton absorb sunlight for photosynthesis whereas dead plankton don’t, resulting in more sunlight warming the water. Again, this requires organic thinking and root cause analysis that’s curiously absent from the scientific community that appears more interested in protecting their salaries than our health and well-being. Scientists blame warmer water for sea lion strandings that will be discussed shortly, but warm water is not the root cause, merely one of the effects of the disappearance of plankton.

Another issue is acidification from increased amounts of carbon dioxide dissolving in sea water as plankton die-off. Missing phytoplankton don’t photosynthesize carbon dioxide so it increases. Small changes in pH can have a detrimental effect on sea life down to the plankton level. In other words, phytoplankton have reached a tipping point where negative feed-back causes a death spiral.

This has alarming implications for all life in the Pacific Ocean and much life on land since Phytoplankton are the beginning of the ocean’s food chain and a major source of oxygen.
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TEPCO Allowed to Dump Radioactive Water into the Pacific

In January, the government of Japan and TEPCO threw in the towel. According to Kyodo News rather than continue storing radioactively contaminated water in thousands of leaking storage tanks, “The Nuclear Regulation Authority … gave the green light to Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s plan to dump toxic groundwater pumped up at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex into the Pacific Ocean after removing almost all radioactive materials from it.”

If only! According to SimplyInfo “they will only remove most of the cesium before dumping it into the ocean. TEPCO’s own testing shows that the water does have significant amounts of beta radiation and tritium. Some wells were quite high with four digit readings. TEPCO mixes all the well water together to dilute the more contaminated well water.” Unfortunately, dilution is not elimination.

ENENews quotes Dr. Gordon Edwards, court-certified nuclear expert: “It can’t be dumped into the ocean, because it’s completely unsafe because of these fission products. They have built over 1,000 large tanks, huge tanks… that contain this very, very radioactively contaminated water. At the moment they’re trying to filter out these fission products… It’s impossible for them to remove all those hundreds of radioactive materials. They know how to remove about 62 of them, but there’s other ones that they cannot.” Not surprisingly, ENENews’ link to that report no longer works nor do many others. Coincidence, I’m sure.

On one extreme we have fear-mongers selling their book and a lot of dubious information on the internet. For instance, the picture below is often used to indicate the spread of radiation in the Pacific. In fact, it is NOT about radioactive contamination. As you can see by the small legend on the right, it is a forecast for the wave height created by the tsunami caused by the Japanese earthquake of March 11, 2011. However, that doesn’t stop a lot of fear-porners implying it’s radiation.

On the other extreme we have government malfeasance, cozy pro-nuclear regulatory agencies and incompetent operators like TEPCO. Where is the truth?

It has often been said we should look upon their works, not their words. Put another way, action speaks louder than words. So with that in mind let’s look at what is happening in the Pacific Ocean.

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Mass Stranding

The New England Aquarium defines ‘mass strandings’ as, “events in which groups of distressed cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) come ashore alive. They can involve anywhere from a few to several hundred animals. Mass strandings regularly occur in several parts of the world (primarily Australia, New Zealand and Cape Cod), yet so far we have no universally accepted, comprehensive explanation for this syndrome. … In many cases, the animals show no obvious signs of health problems other than those resulting from coming ashore.”

Although mass strandings are not new as they’ve been noted for more than a century. What’s different now are the increasing numbers of animals, the increasing number of species and how widespread they now are.
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Sea Lion Pups’ Mass Stranding and Deaths

The Sacramento Bee reports that sick and starving sea lion pups are washing up in record numbers on the California coast. [Emphases below is mine] “Scientists say the warmer waters can prevent sea lion mothers from finding sufficient quantities of anchovies, mackerel, sardines and other fish to provide nutrition for nursing … As a result, tens of thousands of pups birthed last summer are believed to be dying on the islands as others, fearing their mothers have abandoned them, set out into the ocean and drift or wash ashore sometimes hundreds of miles away.” East Bay Express notes that “The animals are opportunistic and will feed on a broad menu of marine species, including squid, hake, and rockfish.” However, these species are also in decline.

Last year, “scientists blamed the phenomenon on unseasonably cold waters.”
According to Consolidate Times “climate change is the chief cause behind it.“ However, according to Time, “a NOAA climate expert said that they do not believe the stranding increase is tied to climate change.”

And, according to ABC 7 LA “While it is too early to know what is causing the increase in sick sea lions … [there are] a few theories such as the increased surf and storms … we’ve noticed there’s been a high parasite infestation in them as well and some upper respiratory infections.”

So there you have it. One year they blame it on the cold, the next it’s too warm, then it’s climate change, no it’s not climate change, but it could be storms or maybe parasites. Once again we see the ass media and so-called experts grasping at straws and single, simple answers to mollify a dumbed-down public in order to hide the truth and, heaven forbid, prevent mass panic.

However, we’ve had storms before, parasites are not new and the climate always changes as does the weather. El Ninos have happened many times before but never caused this frequency of strandings and mass die-offs that are intensifying each year since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Except for many astute reader’s comments in the linked articles (not everyone’s as dumbed-down as the so-called experts), it’s obvious that scientists are trying hard to blame it on anything except the ‘R’- word (radiation).

According to the Marine Mammal Center in 2014, the problems are escalating. “Record strandings forced researchers to declare an unusual mortality event in 2013. So far this year, rescue centers statewide have taken in more than 1,600 marine mammals, which is three to four times the normal average.”

Marin Independent Journal, Feb 21, 2015: “’First time in our history that we have had sea lion pups here this early’ [said] Shawn Johnson, director of veterinary science at the mammal center… sea lions are a sentinel species, a canary in the coal mine. ‘They can tell us what is happening in the ocean and if it’s unhealthy.’”

Again, we see the difficulty people have in distinguishing between cause and effect. No doubt, each of the factors cited above are at play to one degree or another. There are increases in parasites and infections. So what causes that? Emaciation caused by starvation. So what causes that? See lion pups are stranding because their mothers take more time to swim further and deeper to catch fish to feed their pups. So what causes that? Fewer fish. So what causes that? Warmer water. So what causes that? Loss of plankton at the beginning of the food chain. So what causes that? Increased acidification and PH imbalance. So what causes that? Dying plankton increase CO2 levels. So why are they dying? Well, in addition to the usual culprits of over-fishing, pollution and an ever-growing sea of plastic, what happened four years ago at the beginning of this cycle? Answer: the Fukushima nuclear disaster happened. Coincidence, I’m sure.

So is Fukushima the sole cause of all this? No, of course not.

From 1946 through 1993, thirteen countries … used ocean disposal or ocean dumping as a method to dispose of nuclear/radioactive waste. Chernobyl also created a vast amount of radioactive contamination that still remains in Europe, but it was on land and limited in duration.

As well, atmospheric nuclear bomb testing created tremendous radioactive contamination until testing was stopped in the 1960’s. In fact, as noted previously the plankton die-off increased after the 1950’s. What happened in the 1950’s and 60’s? Answer: atmospheric nuclear bomb testing. Another coincidence, I’m sure.

Fukushima, situated on the Pacific coast, is the final nail in the Pacific’s coffin. Some or all the other factors are also responsible to one degree or another. No doubt, there may also be numerous other factors such as sunspots, cosmic rays and so on. Ocean life is complex and involves the interplay of many diverse elements that are difficult for linear-thinking humans to understand.

We know less about our own oceans than we do outer space. Animal life including humans rely on healthy oceans for at least half of our oxygen and much of our food. How can we understand the dying Pacific Ocean if we deliberately ignore the radioactive contamination caused by the impact of Fukushima? The answer is obvious; we can’t. Unfortunately, ignorance can be deadly.
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Immune Systems Compromised by Radiation

The Radiation Effects Research Foundation writes that “Immune cells are known to be vulnerable to radiation, through induced apoptosis (programmed cell death) in mature T and B lymphocytes (long-lived white blood cells responsible for adaptive immunity) and by lethal damage in bone marrow stem cell precursors of monocytes and granulocytes (short-lived white blood cells responsible for innate immunity) as well as natural killer cells (lymphocytes responsible for innate immunity).”

Immune systems are compromised by low-level radiation and we know the Pacific is now contaminated with low-level radiation from the Fukushima disaster. Masses of polar bears, seals, sea lions and fish are suffering from sores, hair loss and internal damage.

Yes, there has always been localized disease and die-offs before, but now we see unprecedented mass disease and mortalities along the entire West coast of North America, from Alaska down to Mexico. Many suspects are trotted out from viruses, parasites, warmer water, methane releases, etc. most of which are never verified, but the elephant in the room, the trigger is Fukushima’s radioactive contamination.

Even when the cause is determined to be viral or parasitic, that doesn’t rule out radiation, because radiation weakens immune systems enabling these opportunistic diseases to wreak havoc. Detecting radionuclides in animals involves more than passing a Geiger counter over it. Specialized instrumentation is required to study radionuclide contamination and only specialized universities have them. Most biologists and chemists are not trained to identify radionuclides and most of those who are rely on government funding for their projects. One can only find what one tests for and we don’t find anything if we don’t test for it.
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Mass Die-Offs

In January, the National Geographic reported “Huge animal die-offs, along with disease outbreaks and other population stressors, are happening more often … We’re not talking about a few dead fish littering your local beach. Mass die-offs are individual events that kill at least a billion animals, wipe out over 90 percent of a population, or destroy 700 million tons—the equivalent weight of roughly 1,900 Empire State Buildings—worth of animals … And according to new research, such die-offs are on the rise.” FYI – The U.S Geological Survey has a website that reports wildlife mortality events in the U.S.

New Mexico State University headlines the question: “What’s Killing Baja’s Marine Animals?” “Dead gray whales and dolphins. Corpses of sea lions, birds and sea turtles decomposing on the beach. Since the beginning of the year, the coasts of Baja California have been the scene of multiple discoveries of dead marine animals.”

150 sea turtles found dead in Mexican Pacific lagoon: “Cold temperatures are suspected of killing some 150 sea turtles found in a lagoon of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula … In mid-January, federal inspectors found the bodies of 14 gray whales at the lagoon, as well as 16 other sea turtles.”

One article reader’s comment proves a lot of people are smarter than the ass media and the so-called scientists whose salaries are paid by the government, “At what point does the media start saying that these animals have been murdered by human activities? How cold does it have to be to kill sea turtles? If the air is cold then the turtles return to warm water. Did the grey whales also freeze?” Coincidence, I’m sure.

554 dead seabirds and 4 sea lions found on beaches in Baja California, Mexico: “Scientists in San Filipe are investigating after finding more than 550 dead seabirds and four dead seals in San Felipe, Baja California … Changes in water temperature will cause the shoals of fish entering the bay deeper and consequently the birds cannot get their main food source” Every so often the truth slips out when they admit, “The above findings would not cause the deaths of the sea lions however.”

The number of mass animal deaths keeps increasing every year. They may not all be a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March, 2011. Some like the Norwegian caribou may be the result of lingering radioactivity from 1986 Chernobyl initially contaminating the caribou’s food source and then exacerbated by Fukushima’s fallout.

Click on the links below by year and you’ll see the lists of mass deaths keep growing since Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Note: I do not endorse the ultra-religious, end-of-times message on that web site, but these are the most comprehensive lists I’ve yet found. As you scroll down each year’s list and you’ll see the list gets longer every year.

Mass death lists by year: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. At the time of this writing, the list for 2015 up to the end of March is about as long as the list for all of 2011.

Low-level radiation poisoning compromises immune systems enabling viral, bacterial & parasitic diseases. Some of the mass deaths may be attributed to disease but the sheer number of deaths is alarming and points to other causes. Coincidence, I’m sure.
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Pacific Ocean is Warming

SFGate quotes Nate Mantua, a NOAA climatologist, “ocean warming has been observed in the past, but rarely do these conditions last as long as this trend … It usually doesn’t stick around for a whole year … I don’t understand it. The take on it now is it’s a mystery. I don’t know where it’s coming from … It is the third deadly winter for the [sea lion pups].” Some mystery! Anyone care to guess what happened four years ago?

Another contributor to warmer water may well be the inordinate amount of radionuclides being washed into the ocean from the ailing Fukushima power plants. After all, water is used to cool operating power plants where the amount of heat is regulated. Now we have uncontrolled amounts of over-heated and unregulated radionuclides from three power plants pouring into the ocean.

The chart below shows Pacific Ocean currents. The prevailing current flows from Japan to North America.

Look at the warm water piling up on North America’s west coast in the graph below. Is it coincidence that that also happens to be similar to the radioactively contaminated currents from Japan or is there a link? I don’t know and if the authorities know, they aren’t talking. Also, I haven’t seen any pictures of the Pacific Ocean’s radioactively-contaminated currents dated later than 2013. Another coincidence, I’m sure.

This is as of March, 2015

Many other nuclear power plants that are operating normally contribute to ocean warming. Only about a third of the heat generated from nuclear plants is converted to electricity. The rest is heat. Those located on coasts or using river water as coolant dump 2/3 of their heat into the water. Instead of emitting CO2, they emit heat directly to the water. Does anyone know how much of that contributes to ocean warming? There are more than 400 nuclear power plants world-wide, but I haven’t see a breakdown showing how many dump their excess heat into rivers and oceans nor how much heat they dump. However, the volume of water used to cool a nuclear power plant is tremendous as you’ll see shortly.

Below is a 2013 simulation of a “10 year time lapse of the radiation from Fukushima, Japan, contaminating the Pacific Ocean”. Note that it’s greatly understated. In the first place it measures only Cesium ‘markers’ whereas Fukushima released over a thousand different isotopes with many different characteristics. Second, it already reached North America sooner; the continental shelf in June 2013 as per the CBC although not the shoreline until 2015 according to Statesman Journal which may explain why many pods of whales were seen migrating closer to shore than usual. Finally it does not account for Fukushima’s continuing daily contamination release far into the future nor TEPCO being given permission to dump stored radioactive water into the ocean as discussed previously. However, it does graphically illustrate how the currents flow to North America, spread out along the way, then flow back to Asia and disperse to other oceans.

The counter for the number of days since release is in the upper left.

California is bearing the brunt of this warming trend and their continuing drought conditions are entering their fourth year. The April 11, 2015 headline from Zero Hedge is “California’s Record-Breaking Heat & Drought “Is Only The Beginning”. They continue: “California has seen droughts before with less rainfall, but it’s the heat that sets this one apart. Higher temperatures increase evaporation from the soil and help deplete reservoirs and groundwater. The reservoirs are already almost half empty this year, and gone is the snowpack that would normally replenish lakes and farmlands well into June.

“The chart below shows a measure of drought known as SPEI. [Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index]

“ It takes into account both rainfall and heat, and again shows the state in uncharted territory.”

Notice that the SPEI index above becomes more extreme at the beginning of the 1960’s, the era of atmospheric nuclear bomb testing. Coincidence, I’m sure.

The animation below shows the drought starting after May 2011, the month after the Fukushima fallout hit the West coast. Coincidence, I’m sure.

And, the chart below shows average California temperatures going back to 1895. Notice how the temperature uptrend accelerates after 2011, the year of the Fukushima disaster. Coincidence, I’m sure.

Lest anyone think they can escape the Northern hemisphere’s radioactive contamination by moving to the Southern hemisphere, be aware that all the oceans are connected and radioactive contamination has already begun spreading to other oceans. See the great ocean conveyor belt below.

It takes about a year for significant flow of radioactively contaminated water out of the Pacific and into other oceans. Since Fukushima’s contamination reached North America’s continental shelf in June 2013, other oceans are already becoming contaminated. That won’t ‘clean up’ the Pacific because the dilution of the Pacific will be offset by an unknown degree by the continuing contamination from Fukushima.
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Dubious Comparisons

Efforts to downplay the Fukushima disaster use questionable comparisons. For instance, comparing radioactive contamination to ‘background radiation’ is a red herring. Prior to WW II and the atmospheric nuclear testing in the 1950’s and ‘60’s there was virtually NO detectable background ionizing-radiation. Admittedly, there is radon, some mines and a few isolated places on earth with unusually high natural radiation levels, but most of today’s so-called background radiation is man-made.

Doctor Helen Caldicott, and her “campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age” says, “There are no safe levels of radiation.” I’m more inclined to believe her than the fear-mongers on one side of the debate and the cozy government regulators, congenitally lying nuclear industry and media whores on the other side.

The problem with comparing radioactive contamination to so-called ‘background radiation’ is it lulls us into accepting background radiation as ‘natural’ when it isn’t. As we experience more nuclear disasters, this background radiation increases and the higher levels become the new standard by which to compare and hoodwink us about the next disaster. Remember, “There are no safe levels of radiation.”

“Look Mom, I’m glowing!”

“Shut up kid, that’s normal. Now go wash your three hands.”

Here’s another questionable comparison. One so-called debunker writes “An airline flight gives you many, many times more radiation exposure than one of these [radioactive tuna] fish ever could.” If he’d done a bit of research, he’d have found that the Journal of the American Medical Association reports, “Pilots and cabin crew have approximately twice the incidence of melanoma [cancer] compared with the general population.” Thanks for all the fish, but no thanks.

Forbes gives us another facile example. They claim the amount of radioactivity in a Pacific tuna is one twentieth as much as a banana. While technically correct, it’s misleading. The radioactivity of tuna continues to increase over time as a result of biomagification from eating contaminated food lower in the food chain whereas a banana doesn’t. As well, the biomagification in bears and humans that eat radioactive tuna also increases with every meal. The continual bombardment of radiation from an ingested ‘hot particle’ will likely cause cancer whereas a banana’s radioactive potassium-40 won’t harm either the banana or those who eat it. On a lighter note, (hey, I’m reaching) the radioactivity from a truckload of bananas is still capable of causing a false alarm when passing through a Radiation Portal Monitor at U.S. ports although that says more about the sensitivity of these monitors than the dangers of eating bananas.

One problem with governments’ measurements is they mostly measure only Cesium-134 and 137. One reason is it’s easier and cheaper to measure than other radionuclides. However, there are over a thousand different isotopes many of which are far more dangerous than Cesium such as Plutonium which we’ll examine shortly. This is just one more reason to distrust lying governments and their defense of the wagon-circling nuclear industry.

There may even be entirely new isotopes we know nothing about being brewed in Fukushima’s melted-down coriums and their interactions with the Pacific Ocean. We don’t know and the authorities are obstinately refusing to admit to this disaster, let alone fund any studies made public.

The ass media often stress ‘half-lives’ of radionuclides implying they are “safe” once their half-life is reached. That’s false. Half-life is the period of time it takes for a radioactive substance undergoing decay to decrease it’s radioactivity by half. Thus, half-life is a useful measure for comparison not safety. As far as safety is concerned, Dr. Helen Caldicott, radionuclides are medically safe at TEN times the half-life. Berkely.edu confirms that, “An element decays away below detectable levels in about ten to fifteen half-lives.”

Examples of half-lives:

Cesium 137……… 30 years
Cobalt 60 ………….5 years
Plutonium 239 ……24,000 years
Strontium 90 …..…29 years
Uranium 235……..704 million years
Uranium 238……….4 billion years

Click HERE for a lengthy chart for hundreds of examples of half-lives in alphabetical order.
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Mass Bird Die-Offs

According to San Luis Obispo (SLO) Tribune “ …ongoing problem throughout California with band-tailed pigeons that have grown sick or are dying of Trichomoniasis…”

San Francisco Chronicle: “Mass pigeon deaths alarm biologists …”

Bay Nature: “…a new strain of trichomonosis affecting the population… the birds are being hit by multiple variations of pathogens at once.”

UC Davis: “Having two species [of parasites] killing birds at these large-scale mortality events is surprising.”

And, according to The Star, “Mass die-off of seabirds on Pacific coast called mysterious. Scientists fear the dead Cassin’s auklets found by the hundreds along the Pacific coast since October may have starved to death, but don’t know why.” Again, this is not a localized event as the mass die-offs have been reported from British Columbia to San Luis Obispo, California and south to Mexico “It’s normal for some seabirds to die during harsh winter conditions, especially during big storms, but the scale of the current die-off is unusual.”

Dead Pelicans line beaches in Peru

So, why are the birds starving? “Researchers say it could be the result of a successful breeding season, leading to too many young birds competing for food. Unusually violent storms might be pushing the birds into areas they’re not used to or preventing them from foraging.” They finally nail it with “a warmer, more acidic ocean could be affecting the supply of tiny zooplankton, such as krill, that the birds eat.”

Bingo! But, is that the cause or another symptom? It’s not always easy connecting the dots. Let’s start with more than 2,000 powerful nuclear bomb tests in the 1950’s and 60’s which, according to Wikipedia totaled more than half a million kilotons. The Woods Hole Institute admits that “The ocean and its denizens continue to bear traces of cesium-137 that date from the atmospheric weapons testing during the Cold War era of the 1960s.” The Environmental Effects of French Nuclear Testing found “iodine131 concentration of 22,000 picocuries per kilogram …” and “the concentration of plutonium-239 and plutonium 240 … for dry plankton [at] 9,700 picocuries/kilogram.” And, “Greenpeace found cesium-134 in plankton…”

We know from the above that phytoplankton are contaminated with low levels of radionuclides. We don’t know how much of that is directly responsible for their die-off or how much other pollutants contribute, but the timing is more than coincidence. Phytoplankton are eaten by krill. Less Phytoplankton means less krill equals starving birds susceptible to disease and parasites and are likely exacerbated by Fukushima’s fall-out over the Pacific since 2011 and ocean currents since 2013. Thus Fukushima’s continuing low-level radioactive contamination is the final nail in the coffin.
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Massive Government Cover-Up & Ass Media Black-Out

I’ve been writing about the Fukushima cover-up since September, 2011 in article. And, Washington Blog tells us, Governments Have Been Covering Up Nuclear Meltdowns for Fifty Years to Protect the Nuclear Power Industry. And, Japan is no exception.

According to nuclear power plant expert Arnie Gundersen, “the pattern of denial created by the nuclear industry during the Three Mile Island meltdown had at least five steps in its playbook” that were also used at Fukushima.

1) Make it appear that “authorities” have the situation under control.
2) Delay any evacuation orders for as long as possible.
3) Claim radiation releases are much lower than they actually are.
4) Claim radiation exposures are acceptable and that no one will die.
4) And lastly, minimize conflicting information given to the press through paid off experts.”

Another good example of this cover-up are the many YouTube videos that are no longer available in the numerous articles I wrote on Japan’s nuclear disaster. What does it tell you that most of the RT (Russia Today) videos are still available? It’s sad that the only news outlets not pulling their punches are Russian. So much for the “land of the free”!

The YouTube video below is a very interesting, in-depth analysis of the mind manipulation and neuro-linguistic programming techniques that television ass media use to manipulate and programme viewers with very sophisticated techniques. That it takes a half hour video to fully explain a two minute program demonstrates the incredible power of such propaganda. Watch it before it too gets pulled.

To access the text version of the article click HERE. The website A Green Road further covers the art of nuclear propaganda HERE.

Why do the authorities lie, cover-up, deny, stonewall, claim ignorance, turn off monitoring stations and discredit anyone that utters the R-word (radiation) to minimize nuclear disasters? There are a number of reasons:

1) Arnie Gundersen says, “If the public became fearful of nuclear power, then the nuclear industry, investors, and banks that had loaned money would face huge losses, so the nuclear industry and nuclear regulators tried desperately to minimize the significance of what was happening at the crippled reactor.”

2) People will demand remediation from cash-strapped governments which are broke and lack solutions. Fixing a nuclear catastrophe after it happens is as unlikely as stuffing toothpaste back into the tube.

3) If they admit that radiation is harming animals then they are admitting harm to people as well so people will demand compensation for injury and damage from cash-strapped governments.

4) Panic-induced mass migration would destroy property values and the tax base. Cash-strapped governments can’t allow this because they’d collapse. Governments’ primary objective is self-preservation. They don’t care about you or your health.

5) According to Dr. Helen Caldicott, “The nuclear industry is covering it up because they know damn well that if the real truth comes out it will be the end of nuclear power.”

6) It would increase the liability of General Electric (GE), one of Amerika’s too-big-to-fail corporations that designed the Fukushima reactors and many in the U.S.

7) It would expose the cozy relationship between the government regulators and the nuclear industry.

8) The authorities think citizens are idiots who cannot handle the truth. The average Joe may be dumbed-down, but that too is governments’ fault through their shoddy education systems. Most people, given the right information, are better able to protect themselves than government bureaucrats who couldn’t run a lemonade stand.

You cannot believe anything reported from any organization that is in any way government funded. It is fabricated news and lies to keep the masses calm and the tax stream flowing.

Silence from government agencies and their media whores works for a while at least until the truth emerges. The Enrico-Fermi plutonium-based nuclear reactor between Detroit and Toledo, Ohio partially melted down in 1966. The whole incident was kept under wraps for almost ten years and was under-reported even then. Did you hear about it?

Also, I suspect Google is assisting in this massive cover-up through the optimization of government propaganda websites by positioning them at the top of their search engine. According to Glinka almost 2/3 (61.5%) of Googlers click on the first three links and Google knows this.

For example, do a search for ‘map fukushima pacific currents’ and the “highest ranked” are governments’ and pro-nuclear industry websites. This is very suspicious since NONE contain maps of ocean currents. I’ve read hundreds of articles researching this post, thousands of readers’ comments on websites that I recommend such as ENENews (Pacific Ocean) and Gundersen’s Fairewinds and Fukushima FAQ and Helen Caldicott’s Nuclear Free Planet and SimplyInfo (Fukushima Project) and A Green Road (unlike other fear-porn sites). So many commenters leave anti-nuke links that they obviously searched that anti-nuke Fukushima links ought to rank much higher than they do and so-called ‘official’ links ranked much lower.
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Starfish Die-Offs

Beginning in June of 2013, starfish on the western coast of North America started dying by the millions. A virus is being blamed. Once again, we see single, simple explanations of a symptom, but no effort to identify the root cause. What else happened in June 2013? Oh, yes the first radioactive currents from the Fukushima disaster hit North America’s west coast. Coincidence, I’m sure.

Tens of thousands of dead starfish line beaches all over the Pacific

NBC News claimed it was due to, “a relatively common parvovirus found in invertebrates that rose to epidemic levels due to overpopulation, a genetic mutation or other unknown environmental factors.” [emphasis mine] Wow, that’s as close to using the “R” -word (radiation) as any news report will come. If it’s such a common virus before Fukushima why did it become so virulent after Fukushima? As mentioned previously, it’s most likely because radiation suppresses immune systems allowing viruses to run amuck and proliferate.

PBS admitted that scientists, “don’t yet know what sparked the seemingly benign virus to transform into the perpetrator of what’s considered the largest marine disease outbreak ever…” That was in 2014 and there would be many more mass die-offs to come. “When researchers tried to figure out where the virus may have come from, they learned that West Coast starfish have been living with the virus for decades. They detected the densovirus in preserved starfish specimens from as far back as the 1940s.” So, what’s changed? Answer: Fukushima. Coincidence, I’m sure.

Various scientists quoted by National Geographic “[Hewson] suspects that the virus may not actually cause the symptoms… [it may] disrupt the sea stars’ ability to control the bacteria that they normally co-exist with … Perhaps something in the environment has shifted … The million-dollar question in all this: Why now? What is it that changed that created the conditions for this outbreak?”

These scientists are in the wrong line of work; they should be tap dancers the way they dance around the issue. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s obvious these scientists either work directly for governments or universities funded by governments and they’re not about to jeopardize their salaries by exposing the truth.

Last November, National Geographic reported “’We’ve seen big outbreaks in sea stars before,’ said Pete Raimondi, a marine ecologist with the University of California, Santa Cruz, earlier this year, “but they’ve been very regional.’ This current outbreak stretches from southern Alaska down through Canada and the U.S. West Coast, into Baja California.” The article also states, “Urchins and cucumbers seemed to have escaped the ill effects of the virus until now. But in recent weeks, reports have started to come in that they too are dying along beaches in the Pacific Northwest.”

The Woods Hole Institute (WHOI) reported previously that phytoplankton “take up radioactive contaminants from the seawater that surrounds them. As the phytoplankton are eaten by larger zooplankton, small fish, and larger animals up the food chain, some of the contaminants end up in fecal pellets or other detrital particles that settle to the seafloor. These particles accumulate in sediments, and some radioisotopes contained within them may be remobilized back into the overlying waters through microbial and chemical processes … Marine invertebrates, such as bottom-dwelling starfish and sea urchins, are particularly proficient at absorbing a wide range of ingested radioisotopes…” Fukushima or coincidence?
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Outright Lies, Deception, Downplaying and Under-Reporting

TEPCO reports that 300 to 400 tons of radioactive water is ‘leaking’ into the Pacific Ocean. One thing is certain, TEPCO lies about EVERYTHING so can we believe them? No, of course not. They been repeatedly exposed as congenital liars and there’s no independent, third-party verification.

Pro-nuclear industry apologists tell us that an Olympic-size swimming pool holds 2,500 tons of water implying that the Fukushima ‘leak’ pales in comparison. In the first place, Olympic-size swimming pools are not contaminated with deadly radioactivity. In the second place, we have no independent confirmation of the volume of TEPCO’s claimed leak. And finally, the math just does NOT add up.

One reader, FXofTruth writes:
“Scientific estimation during an emergency meltdown:
Water is poured on ONE melting core at 30,000 gallons per minute –
– 8.3 pounds is the weight of one gallon of water
– 30,000 gallons of water weigh 249,000 pounds
– A short TON, commonly used in the US, is equal to 2000 pounds

“ONE MINUTE – of water flowing over a ONE melted core is 124.5 TONS of water.
ONE HOUR – of water flowing over a SINGLE melted core is 7,470 TONS of water.
24 HOURS – of water flowing over a SINGLE melted core is 79,280 TONS of water.”

I haven’t been able to verify the GPM needed for a melted core, but the Union of Concerned Scientists’ PDF 20071204-ucs-brief-got-water reports that under normal operating conditions, “the typical 1,000 Mwe nuclear power reactor with a 30ºF ΔT needs approximately 476,500 gallons per minute.” This makes 30,000 gallons per minute for an emergency meltdown in the preceding ‘scientific estimation’ a VERY conservative figure. I suspect the real volume is much higher. You can bet TEPCO will never admit the real numbers.

Since three Fukushima reactors melted down that means 79,280 tons of water X 3 = 237,840 tons per day in total. That’s 95 Olympic-size swimming pools. Per day! And, that does not include however much groundwater is pouring through the radioactive buildings, over the melted coriums and washed off the land by rain and typhoons into the ocean. In other words, an incredible volume of radioactive contaminated water is pouring into the Pacific EVERY DAY!

Also, be aware of continual efforts to downplay the scope of this disaster and the effect of radioactive contamination. They use weasel words like “low-level leaks from the reactor site” as well as “…only those working at the plant face the most serious exposure.” and “long since flushed out to the open ocean” as if “out of sight is out of mind” makes it safe. Other comments like this article in Popular Mechanics “I don’t want to get [radioactively] contaminated, but if I do, I just wash it off and go on with my day” gives new meaning to the word glib. and completely ignores the risk of acquiring radioactive “hot particles” through ingestion, breathing or absorption.

Now that news is breaking about radioactive ocean currents on Canada’s West coast, Canada’s propaganda mother-ships, the Globe and Mail reassures us that, “The amounts of radiation detected are low and do not pose a health threat to humans, fish or the environment … If someone were to swim for six hours a day every day of the year in water that contained levels of cesium twice as high as the Ucluelet sample, the resulting radiation dose would still be more than 1,000 times less than that of a single dental X-ray …” However, you’re not receiving a short duration dental X-ray every day whereas radioactively contaminated currents are here to stay for a long time. And, trust the ass media to write a meaningless phrase like “1,000 times less” instead of “a thousandth” (because “times” is multiplication, not division). By the way, Dr. Helen Caldicott warns against dental X-rays unless absolutely necessary.

There’s no end to the propaganda. The Breakthrough Institute, who Wikipedia describe as “characterized by their belief that technology can be harnessed to better humanity and the environment, and by their non-apocalyptic worldview. They frequently support genetic engineering and believe that nuclear energy is necessary in order to address climate change”, released a report titled Five Surprising Health Facts about Fukushima.

These so-called facts are as follows [I’ve added links to articles disputing this BS]:

1) Thyroid Cancer Rates Lower in Fukushima Children Than Other Regions

2) Fukushima Seafood Safe to Eat

3) Fukushima Evacuation Zone Is Mostly Habitable

4) Cancer Rates in USS Reagan Crewmembers Lower Than Control Group

5) Fukushima Death Toll Is Too Small to Measure [Gerold comment: of course it is as we’re just approaching the cancer latency period of 4 to 5 years as Chernobyl taught us.]

Folks, you couldn’t make this up. References are all the major propaganda whores like the Washington Post, The New York Times, Huffington Post, the UN, the U.S. EPA and other culprits. And, it’s no surprise that Japan’s nuclear lobby is still gagging independent news coverage.
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Seals Dying

It’s not just sea lion pups but adults and harbor seals that are affected by the dwindling supply of the fish they rely on as the Daily Breeze reports on San Pedro’s expanded Marine Mammal Care Center.

Orange County Register quotes veterinarian Lauren Palmer: “The difference is we’re not just seeing little pups … females and yearlings are coming in with respiratory issues and elevated abnormalities in their blood work.” The article notes, “When sea lions converged on the [Channel Island rookeries] in 2012, there was no sign of a problem.” Note: that was before Fukushima’s contaminated ocean currents reached North America. “A year later, nearly 70 percent of the newborns had died.” That was the year Fukushima visited the West coast. Coincidence, I’m sure.

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Governments Raise Radiation Safety Limits

Another nefarious way governments deal with nuclear disasters is raising radiation safety limits. The Amerikans did it in 1992 in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster. Thus, as radioactive contamination increases, they can say they’re within safety guidelines. Here are just some of the obscene increases:

A nearly 1,000-fold increase for exposure to strontium-90;
A 3,000 to 100,000-fold hike for exposure to iodine-131; and
An almost 25,000 rise for exposure to radioactive nickel-63.i

President Obama allowed dramatically raising permissible radioactive levels in 2013 for both soil and drinking water. “This would, in effect, increase a longstanding 1 in 10,000 person cancer rate to a rate of 1 in 23 persons exposed over a 30-year period …”

The 2013 EPA Guide refers to the International Atomic Energy Agency pdf Pub1467_web guidelines that suggest “intervention is not necessary until drinking water is contaminated with radioactive iodine 131 at a concentration of 81,000 picocuries per liter.” This is one 27,000th less stringent than the [previous] EPA rule of 3 picocuries per liter.

The Japanese also raised safe limits. “In April 2011, the government raised radiation limits for exposure at schools near the Fukushima plant to 20 millisieverts. A senior nuclear adviser to the government at the time promptly resigned in protest, saying the level was 20 times too high, especially for children who, he said, are more vulnerable to radiation than adults.”

Radiation Monitors Turned Off

Another way to cover-up the scale of the disaster is to turn off radiation monitors on the West coast claiming the monitors must be faulty because their readings are too high. You couldn’t make this up!

A Bloomberg article in a report shortly after the Fukushima disaster titled, Some EPA Japan-Radiation Monitors May Not Be Working Properly. It reports, Eight of 18 air monitors in California, Oregon and Washington state that track radiation from Japan’s nuclear reactors are “undergoing quality review … An abnormality might mean that the monitor isn’t working correctly, or the device measured a spike in radiation levels attributable to an environmental change.” Say what? Then they blatantly lie and say, “The U.S. hasn’t detected levels higher than what a person receives from exposure in the normal environment …” No, of course not. They turn monitors off when they detect excessive radiation so they can say there’s nothing to report. The U.S. EPA pdf 20120419-12-P-0417 admitted they had problems with the radiation monitors three years ago in 2012 and they still haven’t fixed them. Coincidence, I’m sure.

Furthermore, the monitors are limited in the types of radiation they can detect. Michael Kane writes, “None of them are capable of detecting radioactive iodide … The government does have monitors that can detect radioactive iodide instantly, but they have not been deployed in California as of this writing.” Another coincidence, I’m sure.

The CBC reported that Canada too, has reduced radiation monitoring. “’The quantities of radiation reaching Canada are very small and do not pose any health risk to Canadians,’ said a statement posted by Health Canada online.” How do they know that if they aren’t monitoring?

“In Vienna, International Atomic Energy Agency expert Hartmut Nies also predicted last week that traces of Cesium 134 and Cesium 137 leaking from the plant will be carried by the Pacific’s Kuroshio current to the North American coast within two years … But the detected levels would be “very low” and there were no specific concerns…” which is exactly what you’d expect a pro-nuclear industry spokesperson to say. However, they do admit, “some critics felt the move was premature given that the world’s second-worst nuclear accident is still unfolding.” That was May, 2011. Fukushima is still ‘unfolding’ and will do so forever.
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Polar Bears and Seals

As long ago as 2012, a year after Fukushima’s wind-blown contamination covered the Northern hemisphere, NBC reported “Wildlife experts are studying whether fur loss and open sores detected in nine polar bears in recent weeks is widespread and related to similar incidents among seals and walruses … The bears were among 33 spotted near Barrow, Alaska, during routine survey work along the Arctic coastline. Tests showed they had ‘alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions,’”

“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,’ the USGS stated. ‘Advanced testing techniques for unidentified infectious agents is continuing as well as further testing for potential causes including man-made and natural biotoxins, radiation, contaminants, auto-immune diseases, nutritional, hormonal and environmental factors.’”

And then having reported that the causes are unknown and further testing is required, NBC baldly assure us that, “Reuters noted that preliminary studies do not support a theory that the disease is due to contamination from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.” How would they know if the cause is unknown? This is what one would expect from two propagandists: Reuters and NBC.

According to North Slope’s pdf AMSS2014_seaicescenario_Dasheretal_final “Pinnipeds [seals] may have been exposed while on ice [in 2011] to the following: Near surface air I^131 range of 1,000 to 100,000 uBq/ M^3.” This is not surprising since “Hot particles, nuclear fuel fragments, were detected in air samples taken in Svalbard, Norway.” This is more than 10,000 KM from Fukushima.

Also, two years later, Alaska Dispatch News reported that “Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea area are suffering hair loss due to a condition called alopecia syndrome… but the precise cause of that stress is yet to be determined.” In other words, two years later and they still haven’t determined the cause. Coincidence, I’m sure
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Biting the Hand that Feeds You?

Most “do-good” organizations depend on government funds, grants, or industry funding to a large degree. For instance, the venerable Woods Hole Institute’s website describes they are funded by “Government grants and contracts, foundation and private donations, industry contracts”. Such organizations must be careful expressing their real opinion without jeopardizing their golden goose. Consequently, their analyses are often questionable.

However, there are some animal rescuers that are willing to hint at the source of the problem. A certain Vancouver marine mammal rescue organization has given their rescued seals radioactive names such as: “Yttrium, Ununbium, Gadolinium, Cadmium, Neodymium, Terbium, Thulium, Bohrium, Actinium, Fermium, Caesium, Osmium, Strontium, Rubidium, Erbium, Noibium, Tellurium, Rhodium, Ruthenium, Samarium, Gallium, Curium, Ytterbium, Germanium.” etc. Coincidence, I’m sure.
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Fish Disappearing

In late 2013, Maxim Shingarkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Natural Resources stated “Because of the world ocean currents, the seafood that’s caught off the US Pacific coast is more likely to contain radionuclides than the seafood in the Sea of Okhotsk, which is by far closer to Japan.”

“Not all fuel has been removed from the damaged nuclear reactors yet. We can therefore expect atmospheric radiation releases as a result of the heating up of reactors.”

The Tillamook Herald writes about an Oceanographer’s lecture on “subsequent developments in the Pacific, including the current crash in the food web, which has led to significant mortality of birds, sea lions and other marine life.”

NBC Bay Area are blaming “rapidly declining oxygen levels in oceans that create dangerous, life-threatening conditions for fish and other creatures … In California, this has meant a huge free-fall in populations of important bottom feeder fish like viperfish, hatchetfish, dragonfish and lampfish …” [emphasis mine]

East Bay Express reporting on Southern and Central California: “In fact, if the current biomass estimate is accurate, then sardines have declined to their lowest level in six decades.” They cite marine biologists who blame over-fishing as the cause.

The Russians aren’t pulling any punches, but the Western, so-called experts are grasping for simple single explanations such as declining oxygen or crashing food web or over-fishing. No doubt those factors are partly responsible as symptoms rather than the cause. It’s much more likely that the decline of phytoplankton means less oxygen and less food for bottom feeders and the small fish that sustain birds and marine life.
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Deadly Plutonium

Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and University of Notre Dame report that “the catastrophe at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan [have] resulted in the contamination of large areas of oceans, ground-water, soils, and sediments by actinides, such as uranium and plutonium…”

Taeko Shinonaga, head of Radioanalytical Laboratory at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen states that anthropogenic radionuclides Plutonium 240 and 242 are “accumulated in the human body and hence, poses a considerable hazard to human health. Due to the long half-lives, these isotopes are present in the biosphere on large time scales and a build-up can be expected.”

According to A Green Road Project, “Plutonium has extreme teratogenasis properties, meaning it has severe and negative effects on eggs, sperm and developing foetuses … For this reason, pro nuclear industry apologists will NEVER show or do studies around how plutonium affects a human fetus, babies or children, because it would be deadly for their positive public relations PR, pro nuclear campaign … We doubt very much that such a scientific study could even be carried out, because the results with animals indicate 100% mortality.” According to Dr. Helen Caldicott, “one millionth of a gram of plutonium, if inhaled can cause cancer”.
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Caribou Decline

According to Newsminer.com although Caribou numbers fluctuate naturally, Alaska’s “largest caribou herd suffered a 27 percent decline in numbers between 2011 and 2013 … ‘Why the decline?’ In truth, we don’t have data to completely answer that question. But it appears that summer and winter weather combined with predators have affected survival during recent years.” Excuse me? Summers and winters and predators are something new to Alaska? The decline is also confirmed by Jim Dau, ADF&G biologist who has worked with the herd for more than 25 years and by Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game.

Could it be that caribou eat large quantities of radioactively bioaccumulated vegetation thus biomagnifying the contamination? After all, what happened in 2011 at the beginning of this caribou decline? Answer: Fukushima! Coincidence, I’m sure.
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The Human Effect

Less than ten years after the Chernobyl disaster, the New York Times reported on Russians’ plunging life expectancy. “Life expectancy in Russia, already lower than in any other developed country, has plummeted again this year … Deaths are now almost twice as common in Russia as births, while infant mortality has risen 15 percent in each of the last two years … More than 10 percent have serious birth defects, 50 percent of all school children suffer from chronic illnesses, and these rates are growing every year … the hypothesis that radiation produced by decades of nuclear irresponsibility — at places like the Chernobyl power station but also at waste dumps and test sites across the country — is a major factor in the surge in illnesses and birth defects.”

In the 9 minute video below, Prof. Majia Nadesan outlines “the long-term impact on the planetary gene pool of the on-going radioactive emissions from the continuing Fukushima nuclear disaster.” BTW – in the movie she mentions, “The Children of Men”, humanity has become infertile and mass chaos eventually ensues.

Children are 10 to 20 times more susceptible than adults and fetuses even more so and girls more than boys for reasons unknown, according to Dr. Helen Caldicott in this very informative one hour video Fukushima’s Ongoing Impact w/ Helen Caldicott

It’s difficult finding reliable information about the risks of living on the West Coast of North America. As I reported in previous posts, the radioactive fallout shortly after the March, 2011 ‘melt-outs’ was of such intensity in B.C. and the Western states that it was estimated that the average resident inhaled five ‘hot particles’ a day.

However, the risk today comes from the Pacific’s radioactively contaminated ocean currents. If you live on the West coast, read this report from Canada’s A Green Road blogspot that cautions on ocean fog and especially sea spray which is unpredictable yet found contaminating areas up to 300 Kilometers inland although concentrations increase with proximity to the coast.

The article concludes, “that anyone living close to a coast in a radiation contaminated area should move away from the coast as far inland as possible in order to protect their family from the negative health effects of sea fog or sea spray that could potentially be loaded with invisible radiation. Make sure to live at least 2.1 km inland from the nearest coast.”

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Jellyfish Takeover

Jellyfish are an extremely old species. They’ve survived the ‘big five’ mass extinctions that killed the dinosaurs among others. They’re so simple they have no brain, no heart, no lungs and no gills. All they are is mouths and stomachs as well as gonads for making more jellyfish. And, amidst mass die-offs of other ocean life, the jellyfish seem to be taking over although they too face mass die-offs.

Gwynn Guilford writes “The proliferation of jellyfish appears in large part to be related to humans’ impact on the oceans. The toll we take on the seas may augur a new world order of jellyfish disasters, which, in turn, could devastate the global economy.” He quotes Lucas Brotz, a jellyfish expert at the University of British Columbia: “Coastal areas around the world have struggled with similar jellyfish blooms, as these population explosions are known. These blooms are increasing in intensity, frequency, or duration.”

However, the few predators that jellyfish have; sea turtles, salmon, mackerel and albatross are becoming increasingly scarce. Guilford writes “The toll we take on the seas may augur a new world order of jellyfish disasters, which, in turn, could devastate the global economy … Things are worse in the fishing business, where blooms have wiped out billions of dollars in earnings over the last few decades … Tourism has taken a hit, too. This summer, a pileup of a million jellyfish along a 300 kilometer (186 miles) swath of Mediterranean coastline shortened swimming season for hundreds of thousands of tourists on beach holidays, reports The Guardian. Some 150,000 people are now treated for jellyfish stings in the Mediterranean each summer.”

Guilford calls them ‘eating machines’. “The comb jellyfish, which wiped out the Black Sea’s $350 million fishing industry, can put away 10 times its body weight in food in a single day … Not only do jellyfish compete with smaller fish for the same food, but they also eat those fishes’ eggs. That collapses fish populations … They’re world-class proliferators … They may have gamed evolution.” But in written human history, jellyfish blooms have never before infested the seas. So why now?

“Throughout history, the intricate lattice of ocean life has kept jellyfish in check. Thanks to overfishing, pollution and other factors, though, ‘jellyfish populations are exploding into superabundances and exploiting these changes in ways that we could never have imagined… and in some cases driving them.’”

Our human population continues to rise and our garbage and pollution create oxygen starved ‘dead zones’ in the oceans and as jellyfish need very little oxygen to survive so other animals dwindle and jellyfish colonies expand. “The peculiar biology of jellyfish means that once their numbers surge, the tide may be impossible to turn.”

I wonder what jellyfish taste like?

There is no end to the reports of the dying Pacific Ocean and I haven’t even covered the coral, salmon, red pelagic crabs, scallops, insects, fungus & soil microbes, whales and numerous others.

However, this article is already much longer than I had planned. If you’ve read this far, you can see without a doubt and, despite the silence of the ass media and the propagandists’ BS that the Pacific is dying from a number of causes and Fukushima is the final nail in the coffin. Nobody knows where it goes from here. We’re in uncharted territory.

Some people will say there’s nothing they can do so why worry? I’ve never subscribed to such fatalism. In fact, there is much you can do to limit your radioactive exposure and reduce your health risks. Stay tuned for my next post where I’ll show you dozens of tips and numerous links that will help you to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Gerold
April 11, 2015

[incorrect pictures of dead jellyfish and Pilot Whales were removed Jan. 27, 2016 by admin. thanks to reader comments]

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