Far East commercial sea bioresources not affected by radiation

KHABAROVSK, March 24 (Itar-Tass) - Radiation has not affected the main
fishing zones - the Sea of Okhotsk - the catch area of Alaska pollack
and herring. Radioactive clouds also will not reach the Russian waters of
the Bering Sea. Even in case of the worst scenarios of developments at
Japan's emergency nuclear power plants affected by a strong earthquake and
ensuring tsunami, "Pacific salmon, which lives at depths of up to 50
metres and has a feeding area of many millions of square kilometres, will
not bring to the people's table a dangerous radiation level," Director of
the Khabarovsk branch of the TINRO (Pacific Research Fishery) Centre
German Novomodny told Itar-Tass on Thursday. He stressed that the salmon
growing period takes place mostly to the north of the 40th degree North
latitude. It is the zone of the so-called Pacific drift. Part of salmon
caught in the Far East, including in the Khabarovsk Territory have their
growing period in the region between the Aleutian and Kurile Islands and
the Pacific drift area.
The scientist noted that the ocean - is "a living organism, which
recycles and disposes of hazardous substances." Radioactive iodine, in
particular, "decays rapidly, and radioactive cesium is rather soon
discharged from the body of living beings." Director of the Khabarovsk
TINRO Centre believed that all the salmon fishes would come to the
spawning and fishing areas "absolutely clean."
Within the framework of enhanced monitoring of the radiation situation
four research vessels are taking water samples and analysing sediments and
hydrobionts in the Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan (East Sea) and other areas
of the Pacific Rim. The analyses' results have shown that everything is
all right with the fish.
Natural background radiation was normal throughout the Russian Far
East on Wednesday. Radiation measurements are being taken by 610
stationary and mobile posts, six aircraft and 26 ships of the Russian
Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM), Eastern Military District of the
Russian Defence Ministry, Border Guards Service of Russia's FSB are
involved in the radiation monitoring, spokesman for the Far Eastern
Regional Centre of the Emergency Situations Ministry Sergei Viktorov said.
The background radiation level has not been exceeded anywhere.
The day before the radiation background in different areas of the Far
Eastern Federal District ranged from 6 to 17 micro-roentgens per hour,
well below the level of 30 micro-roentgens per hour.
According to the Vladivostok Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre,
ships passing near Japan and visiting the ports of the Pacific coast of
Russia, also have no traces of radiation from the damaged nuclear power
plants in Japan. Russian transport vessels the routes of which lie around
Japan choose the way near its western shores or sail in the Pacific Ocean
farther from shore. "There has been no reports at all that the vessels
that came to the ports of the Far East would bear the traces of radiation
from emergency nuclear power plants in Japan," said marine rescuers.
Even the worst scenario at the nuclear power plants in Japan does not
pose any threat to Russia's Far East, the chief of the Russian state
nuclear power corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, said at a meeting
with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week. "If the worst scenario of
radiation emissions coincides with the worst wind situation no threat
exists to Russia's Far East," Kiriyenko said, offering his own scenario
based on the Japanese reports and Russian expert estimates. He also noted
that "no nuclear blast threat exists at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power
plant."