Kelp and ocean water could contain the same radioactive substance that spilled out into the Pacific Ocean when a tsunami, resulting from an earthquake, caused destruction to Japan nuclear power plant U-T San Diego reported Monday.
"We don't know if we're going to find a signal of the radiation," Matt Edwards. a biologist at San Diego State University told U-T San Diego. "And I personally don't believe it'll represent a health threat if there is one. But it's worth asking whether there's a reason to be concerned about a disaster that occurred on the other side of the planet some time ago," Edwards told U-T San Diego.
Researchers believe radioisotopes cesium-134, and cesium 137 came from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Power Station U-T San Diego reported.
The discovery is part of the Kelp Project, which examines how strong the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan March 11, 2011 was U-T San Diego reported. The near disaster created a tsunami that reached Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Power Station.
Steve Manley a biologist at California State University Long Beach established the program U-T San Diego reported.
"Kelp is the perfect 'sentinel' organism for a project like this because it absorbs and concentrates things like radioactive material," Manley told U-T San Diego. "Right now, the radioactivity from Fukushima has not reached here. If it does, well be able to measure it, even though it will be really diluted."
Manley noticed small quantities of iodine 131, a radioactive isotope in the sea plant, Kelp along the coast of Southern California Coast, which reportedly arrived into the area through the air U-T San Diego reported.
A rainstorm then sent the isotope into ocean waters along the coast.
"I got emails and calls from people who wanted to know if it was safe to visit the coast and to eat the fish," Manley told U-T San Diego. "I still get emails like that."
