Scientists test sick Alaska seals for radiation

Originally posted by jadedANDcynical
reply to post by zroth

 

Trust me, I know well how BP treats the environment. I live on the Gulf Coast in a place we not-so-affectionately call "Toxic City" and drive by refineries of BP, Valero, Sterling Chemical and Marathon to name a few.

Yep I used to live near Texas City myself... and what a crazy place.... I always hated it when we down there to eat at the food joints there.... the air was always so putrid...

Originally posted by Maybeboo
When I saw the seal problem on RSOE EDIS in mid October I wondered if they would even be allowed to look at the possibility it was radiation related (as it sure sounds like it). It has been a while now - at least they are looking, but will they tell the truth?

You are right. This was actually questioned here on ATS back in October.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Has it really taken this long for the scientists to figure this out? Maybe they should join ATS, and save themselves a lot guess work

Super seal vs. Mega shark coming to an ocean near you! Sorry just trying to lighten the mood here. This is so sad I bet the seals in question are endangered too. The oceans are so vast we may never really understand just how much destruction things like this actually cause. We see the stuff that washes up on shore and I bet thats less than a percent of the actual die off...

reply to post by wantsome


I doubt there is much left in the north pacific that isn't contaminated, let alone the entire world.

Originally posted by SerialLurker
I blame the tsunami, not Japan. There are plenty of nuclear power plants around the world. Not all the have the misfortune of falling prey to a natural disaster.

Putting a reactor in a tsunami zone was there decision, so there for it is there fault to a degree. There were probably a thousand other places they could have built it. Perhaps further in land...

Originally posted by GhostR1der
reply to post by wantsome

 

I doubt there is much left in the north pacific that isn't contaminated, let alone the entire world.

We have truly f*d our planet. Wildlife is suffering for our greed and consumerism. And all those kids in Japan - they just had their odds increased of a future death from cancer. Others as well probably.
I haven't touched anything from the Pacific since the disaster. Unfortunately I can't avoid the air, the local produce, the water...

24/7/365 days a year this destroyed nuclear power plant has been and will be spewing radiation into our world. This is fact. Your posts throughout the Japan declares nuclear emergency after quake monster thread and in countless other threads documenting this disaster, have been poignant and well researched. Like you OP, so many of us here have followed, sometimes deeply horrified and sadened, the devastation from this disaster.

Thank you for continuing to share the news as it develops and for those who continue to discuss this understated catastrophy...perhaps because there is no way to undo what has been done.

A lot of folks along the development and distribution trail all gambled on making money and winning the "industry game" of how to "do nuclear." We lost.

So where do we stand on the cure for cancer lately?

Peace.

Hey,JC,I have been wondering what ever happened with those seals.
I'm glad they are going to test them ,but will they ever reveal their results?

Thanks for the thread!

I came across this,a report

Impacts of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants on Marine Radioactivity

And radioactive readings were still high in July.

By July, levels of 137Cs are still more than 10 000 times higher than levels measured in 2010 in the coastal waters off Japan. Although some radionuclides are significantly elevated, dose calculations suggest minimal impact on marine biota or humans due to direct exposure in surrounding ocean waters, though considerations for biological uptake and consumption of seafood are discussed and further study is warranted.

pubs.acs.org...

I knew it before it was even reported because of google earth. 2 Weeks after the earth quake, if you wear watching google earth weather then you would have seen the HUGE jet stream change. The jet use to fly threw Japan to California. Now it does some weird 90 degree spiral turn looped around Alaska and back into japan. It weather modification. Look at google earth with the weather on, if thats not proof of weather manipulation then I do not know what is .

reply to post by kdog1982


Great find kdog!

This is from the MSNBC article on October 13th:

Biologists said they believe the illness was caused by a virus. Symptoms include sometimes-bleeding lesions on the hind flippers, irritated skin around the nose and eyes and patchy hair loss on the animals' fur coats.

They said the mystery outbreak may not be limited to ringed seals. Some dead walruses at Point Hope, a village on Alaska's northwest coast, were found with similar lesions, borough biologists said.

Local hunters also reported finding skin lesions on two bearded seals, the biologists said.

Yet identification of the disease remains elusive, and it was not clear that the lesions found on the walruses were from the same disease that has afflicted the ringed seals, said Bruce Woods, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"We're kind of in the dark at this point," he said.

The Reuters article in my OP does not mention other animals, but the fact that dead walruses were reported to have had similar lesions indicates that it is a cross-species problem not limited to seals.

Those who are not blinded are clearly able to see these consequences for what they are.

FINALLY...

the radiation hurt something cute!! Maybe NOW we can get some people interested in a cure for this disaster!

reply to post by jadedANDcynical


This need a lot more attention from the masses S&F op hope this reaches more people

While this could be radiation damage to the poor seals,it could just be that they have been unlucky enough to have found something nasty that we have dumped over the years.
We have dumped all manner of chemical weapons into the sea over the decades.
My local sea,between Wales and Ireland is one such dumping ground.

Also,even if the seals are suffering from radiation sickness,there are many other possible culprits other than Fukushima.
Check out the Soviet nuclear lighthouses as one example:
englishrussia.com...

Or this little peach could have hurt the seals:

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk...

Its hard to pin it down to one event I think.
Fact is,there is so much dodgy stuff out there,we just can't say what caused this.

This has been going on since October and they are just now finally testing for what one would think to be the obvious? Why didn't they make this the first thing they tested for, to rule it out.

Seems to me that it would be a lot harder to identify a specific new virus that is causing this than it would be to rule out radiation or prove it to be the cause.

Originally posted by daynight42
reply to post by andy1972

 

"We"?

You can be more specific and pin it to certain groups who are so power-hungry they will destroy the future for the rest of tomorrow's population. It isn't all of us to the same degree. The ones who are responsible for the oil spills and nuclear waste catastrophes are those greedy higher ups. It is worth mentioning that most of us do drive or use plastic products.

But, I didn't have a dang thing to do with any decision made that resulted in those problems, and neither did you...

We're all responsable , the human race.
Those responsable directly, and those indirectly.
The bastards from Exon and BP and Shell and all the power companys who dump crap in seas and pollute the skies and poison the earth.
Those who drive cars, motor bikes or any vehicle that pollutes although transport is a necessarily evil.

And finally ..we.
Those of us who have sat back for the last decades watching all this going on, turning a blind eye, turning over the tv when another oil spill comes on, skipping it over in the news papers to get to the sports pages.
We are all just as guilty as our doing nothing to prevent it has let it happen.
What can we do you ask...and i have no answer for you.

But while there are those that could have done something and have done nothing amonst us, the we are all to blame as the human race.
It is OUR planet.

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

JOHN DONNE - MEDITATION 17, 1624.

Well when hundreds of swimming pools filled with radiated sea water is dumped into the ocean some ones got to pay the price....apparently the seals were at the top of the list.

If they do try to pin the blame on viruses, we all need to remember there are opportunistic viruses out there like different kinds of herpes viruses (not the sexually transmitted one) and other types of opportunistic viruses like staph that cause lesions that will get a foothold on animals weakened by something else like radiation or pollution first. It could be all too easy for anyone to point to the presence of an opportunistic virus and say "See, it's a virus, move along folks, nothing more to be concerned about." The key thing to remember is unstressed animals or humans in healthy environments will always have some exposure to such viruses or have dormant forms they carry. It's really mainly when animals and people get stressed through poor environment, advanced age or some other cause that causes their immune systems to become imbalanced that they will not be able to cope and will fall ill.

So, even if this turns out to not be radiation sickness or a direct reaction to toxins, this cluster of illness is still a signal that something about the animals' environment IS unhealthy and needs our attention.

reply to post by jadedANDcynical



Its way worse than we are being told I fear. Dr Caldicott is a Physician and anti nuclear advocate who is probably a foremost expert on nuclear poisoning and effects . If the seal deaths turns out to be the radiation, it illustrates that the radiation is moving up the food chain,as both seals and humans are fish eaters. I am a big seafood fan but I think I will not be eating the wild variety any more.

Very sad indeed, I fear it's only a wee bit of what's to come. I remember a thread from a couple weeks ago stating a collapse of #4 which held many hundreds of fuel rods and the soon forced evacuation of Tokyo and over 1/2 of Japan...