FRESH FOOD FACT: FORGET FISH

SO LONG, SUSHI, BYE BYE, BASS: All swimming things are
(or soon will be) swimming with radiation as well.
Watch out, Sponge Bob!

By E.J. Gauthier
Vegetarian
By Default

(CNS) JAPAN - - Don't eat fish on Fridays - or any other day, folks.

Japan screwed the... plankton for all of us. Yes, this week Japan finally stopped a highly radioactive leak into the Pacific ocean. But the Japanese government has just set its first radiation notice, which also affects fish, and the nautical news is not favorable.

To put in terms of most of those living there, they have "dishonored" both themselves and their ancestors in one fell nuclear swoop. If they hadn't messed with General Electric's rotten nuke plant design, or followed the horrible geographic building positioning of their surveyors, this threat would not be looming today.

Workers have prevented a highly radioactive source from leaking further into the Pacific, off Japan's flooded nuclear complex, but the plant is far from stabilized, engineers are preparing an injection of nitrogen to deter any new hydrogen explosions, and the fish are fried - but not in a good way.

Japanese officials have been reporting the obvious, that there are still many challenges ahead in stabilizing reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, and halting the coastal radiation leaks that have cast a shadow on northeastern Japanese fisheries.

Yes, they have halted the leak of highly contaminated water into the ocean that rightly raised concerns about the safety of seafood, but it's already been leaking for weeks. They mentioned that fish being at any risk has "stirred worries throughout the fishing industry," which is putting it mildly.

Just how mildly? Well, look at their report: (Emphasis ours.) Radiation in waters near the plant was measured at "several MILLION times the legal limit." Certainly not a good time to be buying even a bag of fish right about now, let alone buying a fish store franchise!

The elevated levels found in some fish prompted the Japanese government on Monday to set its first standard on "acceptable levels of radiation" in seafood.

Which is a rather strange concept, given that all scientists (non-Japanese ones, anyway) have consistently agreed that radiation poisoning is cumulative - always adding, never subtracting - meaning therefore that there can be NO "acceptable" level for humans.

Wow, after recently hearing about all the growth hormone beef, bad milk and tainted fish, that dull old veggie burger is starting to look mighty tasty right about now!

UPDATE: In mid-April, after claiming that things would be sorted out "in a few weeks," then later changing that to "in a few months," Japanese authorities finally admitted that it will actually be a lot more like "the whole year." The switch from a three to nine week window versus a nine month window has confirmed that the situation is out of control.

Which means that it will be no surprise in January of next year, when even more time line excuses will be made, and the imaginary containment/cleanup deadline will be extended yet again. Frankly, at this point it looks like no end in sight, so they should have just evacuated the entire island, and declared it a total loss.