The Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM) project is a network involving academic, governmental, and non-governmental organizations, as well as citizen scientists. InFORM is acquiring data to support a thorough radiological impact assessment for Canada's west coast stemming from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (FD-NPP) accident, and to effectively communicate these results to the public. The measurements undertaken as part of the InFORM project to look for Fukushima derived radionculides in fish during our first of three years of monitoring are now complete. Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) and Steelhead Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) (as well as some Chinook, Chum and Pink Salmon) were caught off the west coast of Canada in Summer 2014 as they were returning to 9 different streams and rivers up and down the coast of British Columbia Canada. These results add to the first 19 fish which we reported on in December of 2014.
What we have found so far:
None of the fish from 2014 were found to contain detectable levels of 134Cs. What this means is that radioactivity from Fukushima cannot be detected in fish caught in BC waters as of August 2014 Nuclear weapons testing fallout (137Cs) can be detected in BC fish at levels that represent a fraction of Health Canada guidelines (1000 Bq kg-1) and a fraction of the radiation exposure owing to naturally occurring radionuclides Neither the 137Cs nor the naturally occurring radioisotopes in fish represent a measureable health risk to consumers in Canada