Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber, July 30, 2014: Karlista Rickerson […] collects and examines water samples for Public Health — Seattle & King County, and she said her most recent sample revealed far less plankton than she normally sees this time of year. She wonders if perhaps there has been a surge in the creatures that feed on the microorganisms — creatures that typically fall prey to sea stars. “There are too many questions. All I can do is ask more,” she said.
KING5 News (Seattle), Aug 5, 2014: Salmon scientists zoom in on plankton […] “We want to take a look at the plankton,” said Tribal field Crew Supervisor Nano Perez. For the first time, tribes, agencies and groups in Canada are giving plankton a serious look as part of the massive Salish Sea Marine Survival Project. The concern is the balance and supply of plankton could be off and that could be a possible factor in the mysterious die off of young salmon when they enter Puget Sound from their native rivers. Salmon eat plankton and so do the smaller fish that salmon also eat. […] If there turns out to be a problem, then scientists can start looking for why it’s happening.
KING5 News Transcript, Aug 5, 2014: When they leave the rivers and enter Puget Sound, young salmon are healthy and hungry — and then they die. Scientists want to know if they’re starving.
North Pacific Dispatches, Lori Saldana, July 29, 2014: [My friend] coordinates research vessels out of Moss Landing, near Monterrey. He called to ask […] want to volunteer on a research cruise? So… that’s where I will be for the next two weeks: aboard the R/V Point Sur, helping collect ocean water samples from the Bering Sea off Alaska and northern Pacific, as we cruise back to California.
Mercury, Cesium, Plankton and Whales, Lori Saldana, July 30, 2014: I completed my first 12 hour data collection work shift […] we gather water samples and look for plankton and trace amounts of mercury and cesium- the first, a persistent and toxic pollutant, the second, a radiation marker linked to the Fukushima accident.
North Pacific Dispatches, Lori Saldana, Aug. 4. 2014: [T]his cruise is a bit different: fewer researchers than usual. We have only 15 people aboard, which is considered a skeleton crew […] The first 36 hours we had research stations every 60-90 minutes […] Now stations are 2-3 hours apart […]
US officials now testing for poison from Fukushima? 42 months later……..I wonder if they will report the truth…..I doubt it, they will continue to lie. Our nation has lost credibility abroad, but on this subject, our government is no longer trusted to report truthfully.
Our entire food chain has been broken, and greedy gut bastards who want to continue to sell tainted sea food will prevail. They are too stupid to realize it will poison them, too. Had mankind any sense, all nations would have joined together in 2011, and sought a solution. But, too many corporate interests were feeling the threat…..so they blacked out the story.
Now, our bay is full of big sea creatures because they are starving, struggling for oxygen in a dying ocean, and cannot go anywhere else. An intelligent solution might have been to relocate some of them to oceans not yet dead……but that would take cooperation and thought.
When the poor creatures die, the vulture animals so wisely integrated into the food chain by nature won’t touch them. They can smell the disease on them.
Our beaches are littered with the rotting corpses of these sea animals, many starved, others diseased…..but there are no services to remove their radioactive poisoned remains. The stench will soon make our once beautiful beaches intolerable.
I feel for the people who live on the ocean. Their million dollar homes will be worthless, the area too radioactive and poisoned for life to survive.
Denial isn’t the answer, yet, that is all I see.