Researchers at the University of Victoria are recruiting volunteer “citizen scientists” for a three-year program to monitor radioactivity levels in selected locations on the B.C. Coast, in relation to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
The goal is to recruit 10 to 15 volunteers in 14 areas along the Coast, including Nuu-chah-nulth territories in Bamfield, Tofino-Ucluelet and Nootka Island/Tahsis, according to UVic chemical oceanographer Jay Cullen, who heads the network known as InFORM. The levels of radioactivity present in water samples will not pose a health risk to volunteers, he said.
The InFORM program is being set up to monitor the radioactive particles (radionuclides), specifically Cesium 134 and 137 and Iodine 129, which were released when the Fukushima Daiichi reactors melted down and spilled contaminated water into the ocean.
Those radioactive particles have since travelled with the current.
“The leading edge of the [radionuclide] plume is here. It’s been on the coast since June 2013,” Cullen explained.
When the plume reached the B.C. Coast, it split at Vancouver Island, with the northern half being taken up in the Alaskan Gyre and the southern half into the California Current.
Iodine 129 is a radioactive version of the iodine that is essential for human health. When it is absorbed in the thyroid, it can cause cancers, Cullen said.
Health professionals do not believe the level of radionuclides will reach hazardous levels, he added. The monitoring program will allow scientists to track the distribution of particles and predict any future consequences.
“We can compare it with what existed in the North Pacific during the Cold War atmospheric [nuclear] weapons testing in the 1950s and 60s,” Cullen said.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Cesium 137 levels reached 80 becquerels (Bq) in the North Pacific.
“What we are seeing offshore from Fukushima is between one and two [Bqs]. The models predict it could get as high as 30 – roughly half of what it was at the height of the Cold War – but what we’re seeing in terms of what we’re measuring now suggests that it will be on the order of five or maybe 10.”
But in order to verify the projections, you have to do the science, Cullen said. That’s where the public comes in, and the hope is to attract significant First Nations participation.
“Our research group recognizes that people who live along the Coast and have always lived along the Coast rely on the ocean for food, and it is both culturally and economically important.”
Each volunteer group will receive a shipping crate each month containing a 24-litre collection vessel and support materials. The sample must be dated and the location recorded by GPS, and then sent for analysis.
At the Ahousaht fisheries office, manager Larry Swan said he hadn’t yet heard about the program, but he expects it will attract plenty of volunteers.
“We just watched a news story about [radioactive] contaminated tuna off California,” he said.
“We don’t eat tuna, but we’re concerned about our own food species,” fisheries guardian Rocky Titian said.
Tla-o-qui-aht fisheries manager Andrew Jackson said his members would “definitely” be interested.
“We’re open ocean-type people,” he said. “Right now, the [NTC] Central Region fisheries biologist is setting up a crab sampling program for the same purpose.”
“We’re really excited about it,” Cullen said. “I think it’s going to be a really exciting project, particularly the citizen-scientist involvement. We’re already making measurements offshore, but I really think that gathering people together who are concerned about the ocean, and having a stake in understanding what the impacts are, is a really bright side.”
While the main priority is to collect one large (24-litre) water sample each month for three years, Cullen said there should be spin-off benefits.
Currently, InFORM project scientists are analyzing samples of salmon collected by Fisheries and Oceans Canada at various sites along the Coast. The studies that flow from the radiation monitoring initiative, should ultimately add valuable data to the existing knowledge base on salmon.
“The benefit is, there is a group of people who are getting together to talk about issues that are related to the ocean. And not just Fukushima,” he said. “We hope to get funding for training and workshops from [Marine Environmental Observation and Prediction], which is a Centre of Excellence set up by the federal government in 2012.”
For more on the science, check out the InFORM website at www.fukushimainform.ca. Those interested in volunteering are asked to fill out a contact form before Sept. 30.
There is also a Facebook site at Fukushima Inform.
“And I have a Twitter account at @JayTCullen,” Cullen said.
The InFORM project was created in partnership with a number of non-governmental organizations such as the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust, the Raincoast Education Society, the Georgia Strait Alliance and the David Suzuki Foundation, and receives funding from OurRadioactiveOcean.org, a U.S.-based monitoring organization.
