Recent official data shows that levels of radioactive contamination in fish caught off the east coast of Japan remain raised. It is a sign that the Fukushima power plant continues to be a source of pollution more than a year after the nuclear accident.

According to the official statistics, approximately 40% of fish caught close to Fukushima itself are regarded as unfit for humans under Japanese regulations. Environmentalists and scientists suspect that there is an on-going leakage into the ocean of polluted ground water from under Fukushima, and research has shown there is the contamination that's already in the sediments just offshore.

Professor Buesseler, who is affiliated to the US Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) conducted an evaluation that covers a year's worth of data gathered by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). Its monthly records detail the levels of radioactive caesium found in fish and other seafood products from shortly after the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami - the double disaster that triggered the Fukushima crisis.

The caesium does not normally stay in the tissues of saltwater fish for very long; a few percent per day on average should flow back into the ocean water. So, the fact that these animals continue to display elevated contamination strongly suggests the pollution source has not yet been completely shut off.

Yet the standard on radiation contamination in Japan is actually much stricter than the rest of the world since Japanese authorities wanted to instill greater market confidence. Thus, the 40% number is actually overstated according to international standard.

Image courtesy of Andreas on Flickr.

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