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Tons of dead sardines, mackerel wash ashore in northern Japan (japantoday.com)
33 points by ulrischa on Dec 11, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 11 comments



Hot water has less oxygen, the fish suffocated. This was on the Japanese news over a week ago, but without the "nobody knows why" part: it was blamed on unusually warm ocean temperatures.


This is such a helpful insight and a good reminder to always read multiple sources


So does that mean that the fish still alive are better adapted for warmer water and will now rapidly breed new fish that are also similarly adapted?


No, fish still alive didn't have a chance to meet the Fukushima waters.


having the average size of the fishes could point to the origin


Without knowing anything beyond "headline news" on this topic, is it anywhere near the recent nuclear water ocean release from Fuki- nuclear generating facility? I remember a few headlines, don't remember the geography/specifics.

Hell, most militaries dumped tons of nerve agents directly into deep waters, within just a few decades ago — "official policy" doesn't even surprise me anymore!

Hoping to be wrong.


This is just something that happens from time to time. For example, it happened in February of this year (prior to the release of treated water from Fukushima) in Itoigawa [1].

While it's understandable that someone's mind would jump to Fukushima as a possible cause, since it's been in the news recently, it is likely just due to natural phenomena such as the fish being chased ashore by a pod of dolphins.

[1] https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/a5e8d11585ad014f14b45ad0bf...


Before I even opened the article this is what I was thinking. There was alot of drama around the water release and I think China still has a ban on Japanese seafood imports


From what I remember wasn't it just drama for the sake of drama and general fearmongering?

The radioactive water that was released was treated and diluted, to have a radioactivity way below what is allowed and safe for ocean release. The release was not exceptional, neither for Fukushima nor for the many other nuclear power plans that do similar water release.

China especially routinely releases water from its nuclear power plant with higher tritium concentration than Fukushima.

Ex of discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/NuclearPower/comments/169ekpv/gener...


It's climate change, not some piddly amount of barely radioactive water diluted to undetectable levels.


Yes, that whole Fukushima radioactive water release polemic was a little bit ridiculous.




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