[Kielanders]

Is anyone out there in and around the North Pacific with some experience on the water over the years noticing a change in the quantity, distribution, and health of the sea-life?

I can't find much that'd I'd consider reliable in the mainstream press, and most of the alternative journals & blogs I read leave little in the way of hope.

Thanks.
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Edit: 5/9/14

I just found one of the more recent articles I'd read, from an Australian sailor/racer who's crossed the Pacific numerous times. The article seeming to implicate overfishing as the problem, but then he made this rather grim statement about half-way thru the article:
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"The next leg of the long voyage was from Osaka to San Francisco and for most of that trip the desolation was tinged with nauseous horror and a degree of fear.

"After we left Japan, it felt as if the ocean itself was dead," Macfadyen said.

"We hardly saw any living things. We saw one whale, sort of rolling helplessly on the surface with what looked like a big tumour on its head. It was pretty sickening."

"I've done a lot of miles on the ocean in my life and I'm used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks and big flurries of feeding birds. But this time, for 3000 nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen."
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Here's the article: The ocean is broken | Newcastle Herald

 

[rockDAWG]

Since the quake, I think both Japanese and American scientists have been actively collecting data form this region and afar. So far the radioactive level in the sea life has increased, but not to the level that we need to worry about. However, the long exposure is not known for sometime (long time). The sad part is they can't control the leaks. It is a mess, we will all pay for it one way or another.

 

[UnionPacific]

Its no big deal at all. The underwater detonations in the 50's and 60's irradiated more water then fukoshima ever could. There has been no rise in the background radiation in the air on the west coast, and not even in japan some 60 miles from the plant. Its not a very big deal, and very small next to even the russian meltdown.

 

[tdw]

Yes I'm afraid i'd have to go with UP on this one. While Fukushima is undoubtedly a tragedy and does nothing to ease my personal concern about nuclear energy one would have to think that the combined efforts of both the US and France would have given us a lot more to worry about than Fukushima. I dare say there a places in the Pacific that even today you would not want to visit.

 

[UnionPacific]

I dare say there a places in the Pacific that even today you would not want to visit.

they should all be fine by now. Low enough that it is no different then watching a tube tv, or standing by the microwave. I might not be a great sailor, but I am a great scientist.

 

[rockDAWG]

You mean NRC makes us properly dispose of our radiative waste of C14 and H3 is just for the show. The cost of disposal of a 55 gal drum is way over 10 grands. We could just turn on the tap and flush down the drain. Hey our ocean is huge, they can't detect that.

That was BP said that too about their oil.

 

[UnionPacific]

You mean NRC makes us properly dispose of our radiative waste of C14 and H3 is just for the show. The cost of disposal of a 55 gal drum is way over 10 grands. We could just turn on the tap and flush down the drain. Hey our ocean is huge, they can't detect that.

That was BP said that too about their oil.

The issue with the oil is, it floats. Too bad too or maybe noone would have know about the spill. All is not lost, there are microbes in the sea that eat oil. In fact long before we came tapping the oil, it leaked naturally into the water, and was eaten by these microbes.

On the radiation, your right. dumping 55 gallon drums into the ocean would not be all too bad, as long as it was not in one area. There are even theories that dumping our nuclear waste into the trench in the pacific would do so little harm, that we would never notice. That is true, however as a good scientist I see the value in spent nuclear fuel. It can be reprocessed and reused, just ask france.

 

[rgscpat]

So, what people are saying is that it wasn't angry mutant radioactive ninja whales that made Japan decide to stop whale hunts?

 

[rockDAWG]

Would you stop calling yourself a GOOD scientist in a sailing forum? It does not make your statement stands out more. ...........LOL

 

[krisscross]

I'm waiting for Godzilla to come out of the hiding any minute now, and she is going to be bigger and meaner then ever.

 

[rockDAWG]

Hey..........Mutation can go both ways. It can become smaller and gentler

 

[Group9]

The issue with the oil is, it floats. Too bad too or maybe noone would have know about the spill. All is not lost, there are microbes in the sea that eat oil. In fact long before we came tapping the oil, it leaked naturally into the water, and was eaten by these microbes.

Actually the problem with most of the BP oil is that it did not float as it was hit with disbursing agents that apparently caused it to sink, where rather than being naturally disposed of, it is sitting in huge tar like mats on the ocean floor and slowly drifting around.

I'm sure the Gulf of Mexico will recover, I'm just not sure it will be in our lifetimes.

The biggest thing making me a cynic was seeing oil in all of the places we were later told no oil made it to.

 

[Minnesail]

I think nuclear power is to coal power what air travel is to car travel.

In general nuclear power is much cleaner and safer than coal power. But when nuclear power goes wrong, it does it in a big big way that gets a lot of press coverage.

Similarly, in general air travel is much safer than car travel. But when air travel does go wrong, it goes wrong in a big way and we get 24/7 coverage on CNN.

 

[rgscpat]

Well, it's probably better to have a good scientist on the forum than have to share this thread discussion with the twisted, demented evil scientists.

 

[Kielanders]

...deleted, and moved to original post on the thread.

 

[SoOkay]

they should all be fine by now. Low enough that it is no different then watching a tube tv, or standing by the microwave. I might not be a great sailor, but I am a great scientist.

From a radiation level, it's safe to visit places like Bikini Atoll, the remaining problem is with radiation levels of any food grown in the island.

 

[UnionPacific]

Would you stop calling yourself a GOOD scientist in a sailing forum? It does not make your statement stands out more. ...........LOL

That is true, however as an evil scientist I see the value in spent nuclear fuel. It can be reprocessed and reused, just ask france.

I fixed it.

 

[UnionPacific]

Hey..........Mutation can go both ways. It can become smaller and gentler

Or it can make it derpy and it may come to LA and spin in circles and flap its hands.

 

[FSMike]

Well, it's probably better to have a good scientist on the forum than have to share this thread discussion with the twisted, demented evil scientists.

But how can you tell them apart?

 

[UnionPacific]

But how can you tell them apart?

there are two types of scientists. Independent and greedy.

The greedy one says "the sky is falling, if we research it enough we may be able to stop it" So they get funding for sky falling research. essentially there job and income depend on what they say. If they say "the sky will no longer fall" then job over, out of work. If they say, sky still falling, you can do this to help, but we need more research money, then the job goes on. You can see how that works.

Then you have a scientist like myself. I sit about all day, for free, and read research papers, and published research. I check it for accuracy. There is so much nonsense today that is published, and then rescinded its unreal. Then later I hear in a news story about the research that is rescinded.

EG I could say all monkeys are white, sign it, and send it in. It would be published, then rescinded. Because they publish all the utter nonsense they receive anymore. they even have a computer program assembling words, and then submit them. Its so they can claim to be published. Rant over. Anyway, that is how you can tell, and that is why human caused global warming is junk science, so is most endangered species research. Pacific and Atlantic garbage patch is junk science. I could go on for pages about scientists who's sole goal is to raise money and publish rubbish. uke