The purpose of this post is to present measurements of artificial radionuclides in wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) made in 1990’s and reported in a peer reviewed paper published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences by Tucker and colleagues in 1999. This post is part of an ongoing series dedicated to communicating the results of scientific research aimed at The paper combines an understanding of bioconcentration of the artificial radionuclide 137-cesium (137Cs half life ~30 years) in marine food webs with quality measurements of the contaminant in salmon that spent their lives in the North Atlantic Ocean. The North Atlantic at the time had a strong east to west gradient in 137Cs concentrations in seawater with >10 Bq m-3 in the east owing to spent nuclear fuel reprocessing in Europe and the recent impact of the Chernobyl disaster and <1.5 Bq m-3 in the west near to Canada. Salmon returning to the Ste. Marguerite River in Canada had a wide range of radiocesium in their bodies which reflected the entire range of values seen in fish harvested across the Atlantic Ocean. The results indicate that the migration routes of these salmon extended all the way across the Atlantic to the Irish and Norwegian seas. The study is relevant to understanding the impact of the Fukushima disaster on radiocesium levels in Pacific salmon as the maximum levels of contamination of seawater we see in the central and eastern North Pacific is lower than the maximum levels studies by Tucker and colleagues. Given this fact we would predict that levels of Fukushima derived contaminants in Pacific salmon and the health risk associated with the consumption of these fish will be correspondingly lower. Thus far the salmon monitoring results from the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM) project are in keeping with the scientific communities understanding of 137Cs bioconcentration in fish outlined in the Tucker study and references therein.
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