Scientists detect no Fukushima radiation in West Coast kelp forests
Scientists detect no Fukushima radiation in West Coast kelp forests
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Steven Manley, a Cal State Long Beach marine biology professor, led an excursion beyond the break wall in Long Beach to collect the program's first samples of kelp for "Kelp Watch 2014," a scientific campaign designed to determine the extent of radioactive contamination of the state's kelp forest from Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, Long Beach, CA. on Thursday, March 6, 2014. (Sean Hiller/ Staff Photographer)
By Andrew Edwards, Press-Telegram
POSTED: 05/07/14, 3:19 PM PDT | UPDATED: 4 DAYS AGO
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Researchers from Cal State Long Beach and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory launched "Kelp Watch 2014," a scientific campaign designed to determine the extent of radioactive contamination of the state's kelp forest from Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami. Initiated by CSULB Biology Professor Steven L. Manley (shown) and the Berkeley Lab's Head of Applied Nuclear Physics Kai Vetter, the project relied on samples of Giant Kelp and Bull Kelp from along the California coast. Long Beach January 22, 2014. (Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer)
A team of scientists sampling West Coast kelp forests for signs of radiation that may have crossed the Pacific Ocean after the Fukushima disaster found no indication the isotopes contained radioactive seawater that had traveled from Japan to North America.
Cal State Long Beach announced the test results Wednesday. Cal State Long Beach marine biologist Steven Manley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicist Kai Vetter are leading the study, which has been dubbed Kelp Watch 2014.
“Our data does not show the presence of Fukushima radioisotopes in West Coast Giant Kelp or Bull Kelp,” Manley said in a statement.
“These results should reassure the public that our coastline is safe and that we are monitoring it for these materials. At the same time, these results provide us with a baseline from which we can compare samples gathered later in the year.”
The initial survey results were taken from kelp growing in 38 locations in waters ranging from Kodiak Island, Alaska and Baja California. Scientists also analyzed brown algae samples obtained near the coasts of Guam and Hawaii.
Scientists focused their search for the isotopes cesium-134 and cesium-137 in part because their half lives of two years and 30 years, respectively, are longer than some of the other radioactive materials that were released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant that was destroyed as a result of the March 11, 2011, tsunami. A half life is the amount of time required for one half of the mass of a radioactive element or isotope to decay.
Kelp is known to concentrate cesium, which has previously been found in kelp samples obtained in Asian waters that had been exposed to fallout from nuclear weapons testing, according to Kelp Watch.
Monitoring is not yet completed, and if radioactivity is discovered, scientists anticipate that waters off the northwest of the continent will be the first to receive radioactive seawater. Scientists plan to obtain samples from Vancouver Island on a monthly basis.
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