Japan: Oyster Bumper Crop In Miyagi – Oysters Double Speed Of Growth

Oyster in North Japan grow as double as average (Fukushima Diary, Jan. 21, 2012):

Kesennuma Miyagi, where got the worst damage of Tsunami in 311, restarted oyster farm but the shells grow unusually fast.
They reopened the farm last June after having the port completely destroyed by Tsunami. The oyster was 1~2cm at the time but they have already grown to be about 10cm, which is as double fast as usual.
At average, it takes 2 years but they are already starting to sell them from 1/19/2012.
Fisher’s experiment station of Kesennuma thinks it might be because the rivals of oyster died or nitrogen nutrition might have flown from ground soil by Tsunami. Nobody has considered the risk of radiation.

Source

Bumper Crop of Big Oysters in Miyagi Prefecture, Oysters Grew Extremely Fast (EX-SKF, Jan. 21, 2012):

From Asahi Shinbun Miyagi local version (1/20/2012):

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On January 19, 160 kilograms of cultured oysters were shipped, as the first batch, from Higashi Mone District of Karakuwa-cho in Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture. The oysters had been seeded in June last year. The shipment was scheduled for this fall, but the oysters grew so rapidly that fishermen decided to harvest and ship right away. The shipment will continue throughout the month.

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4 fishermen including Tetsu Hatayama (age 40) harvested and shipped the oysters. They pulled the ropes that were in the ocean to take the oysters attached to the ropes, cleaned the oysters and put them in the baskets, and put the ropes back in the ocean. Since they are missing the baskets because of the earthquake/tsunami, they removed some oysters from the shells to ship.

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According to Hatayama, there’s an old saying that oysters grow fast after a tsunami. They may have grown rapidly since a number of rafts used for oyster culture [ropes are dangled from the rafters] were lost in the earthquake/tsunami and the dense planting was alleviated [as the tsunami wiped out the rafts]. Hatayama says, “We decided to harvest sooner, otherwise the rafts would have sunk from the weight of the oysters. This is a special case, shipping this early, thanks to the earthquake/tsunami.”

Oysters eat phytoplankton in the ocean.

NHK did the documentary in November last year investigating the marine contamination from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, and found high levels of bioconcentration in abalones of both radioactive cesium and radioactive silver (Ag-110m), the latter particularly in the liver. Oysters are almost all internal organs as they don’t need and use muscles once they attach themselves to rocks or ropes.

There is absolutely no concern for radiation in the Asahi article.

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