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4 Comments

  1. Ken Buesseler on March 8, 2021 at 3:46 pm

    Are people in Hawaii still concerned about radioactivity from Fukushima Dai-ichi? And those fish samples are really low in 137Cs- how big were the sample sizes and counting times to measure these small numbers?
    Keep up the good work.



    • Henrietta Dulai on March 10, 2021 at 2:31 pm

      We analyzed 30-50 g dry weight of fish and counted each sample for 4-7 days.
      Like in Japan, in Hawai’i fish is an essential food. People in Hawai’i are still concerned about radionuclide levels in the ocean and fish but I have not had that many inquiries over the past few years. There was, however, renewed interest and concern when news of potential new releases of radionuclide-rich water came out.
      For sure, Hawaiians worry and care about people living near Fukushima -we are all hoping the situation get stabilized and resolved soon.



  2. sabine charmasson on March 9, 2021 at 5:31 am

    thank you for presenting this interesting work.
    Just for your information in 2011, the TARA Oceans expedition provided our laboratory with a muscle sample from an offshore Wahoo(Ono I think in Hawaii) (Acanthocybium solandri), caught in October 2011 north of O’ahu island. This sample was analyzed by gamma spectrometry in our lab and we found concentrations 0.941 ± 0.094 for 137Cs and 0.094 ± 0.024 Bq kg-1 dry weight for 134Cs. The short lapse of time between the accident and the catch militates in favor of a migration of this individual that must have been contaminated near japan. This result has not been published since it concerns only one sample but I thought it was useful to share this with you. Good continuation



    • Henrietta Dulai on March 10, 2021 at 2:36 pm

      Thank you, yes that aligns well with our observations. It is interesting to see how much 137Cs is in fish from pre-2011 sources and how much 137+134Cs was added in 2011. These fractions vary greatly depending on where the fish lives. Of course now 134Cs is gone but would be interesting to find another way of figuring out pre-2011 and 2011 sources.