West Coast Blue Fin Tuna Research Paper

Jodie Thompson
8/20/2013
AICE Marine Bio
Period 1

Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Facility is leaking into the Pacific Ocean constantly. This leak was caused by a powerful earthquake in 2011. Any sort of chemical leak is terrible; however, the location of the Fukushima facility makes it significantly worse. Because this body of water does not remove or clean itself well, the chemical pollution is just increasing and taking over the ocean. Marine life is being severely affected by this. One fish that should be a main focus is the West Coast Blue Fin Tuna. The West Coast Blue Fin Tuna is a widely recognized fish and the West Coast Tuna Fishing industry is very familiar with this marine life form. For this industry, the Fukushima leak is the worst possible event. Phytoplankton, plankton, and many other marine life forms feed on the radioactive chemicals being released by the gallons every day. This consumption of chemicals makes its way up the food chain to the West Coast Blue Fin Tuna. Not only is it now harmful to eat, the West Coast Blue Fin Tuna ingests the radioactive chemicals which in turn begin to eat away at its tissue thus leading the
I would begin by monitoring a set amount of 200 North American Blue Fin Tuna (Group #1). These fish would be in clean water with no radioactive chemicals and superb circulation. My other group would consist 200 of Blue Fin Tuna in clean water that is not well circulated (Group #2). Another group would be made up of 200 Blue Fin Tuna with circulated water containing the Fukushima chemicals (Group #3). My final group includes 200 Blue Fin Tuna in Fukushima chemical, not well circulated water (Group #4). I would monitor the number of tuna and then compare to Group #1. This would allow me to distinguish the levels of radioactivity in the Blue Fin