For the third consecutive year, tests have found no radioactivity in Alaska seafood stemming from the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, state officials announced Monday.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said in a statement that seafood samples from Alaska waters in 2016 tested negative for three Fukushima-related radioactive isotopes: iodine-131, cesium-134 and cesium-137. The findings for the tested species — including king, chum, sockeye and pink salmon, as well as halibut, pollock, sablefish, herring and Pacific cod — matched those from 2014 and 2015.
"Fish species were chosen for testing based on their importance to subsistence, sport, and commercial fisheries and because they spend part of their life cycle in the western Pacific Ocean," DEC officials wrote. "Samples of fish were taken by DEC environmental health officers during regular inspections of commercial fishing processors throughout the state."
