The Impact Of The Fukushima Radiation On The Ocean – Arnie Gundersen: If You Are On The West Coast And The Cascades You Need To Demand Your Government To Check For Fukushima Fallout (Video)

The Impact of the Fukushima Radiation on the Ocean (EcoReview, Dec. 7, 2011):

Arnie Gundersen at 53:00 into the video:

“I think if you are on the west coast and the Cascades you need to demand more of your (Oregon, Washington State and California) local officials, or of the federal government, to look into what’s in the fish.

Not just the saltwater fish, but also what’s rained out on the land and is now in the local rivers.”

Japanese Journalist Dies Of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (Was Living Inside 30 Km Area To Support Fukushima, Eating Fukushima Fish)

Another man died of acute lymphocytic leukemia (Fukushima Diary, Nov. 27, 2011):

A 23 years old man died of acute lymphocytic leukemia as well.

Mr. Abe Hiroto wrote columns for a fisher’s magazine, called “Rod ? Reel”.

His grandfather was from Fukushima.

To support Fukushima by eating Fukushima fish, he was living in 30 km area, lived on fish from river or sea.

Read moreJapanese Journalist Dies Of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (Was Living Inside 30 Km Area To Support Fukushima, Eating Fukushima Fish)

Extraordinary Amount Of Radioactive Cesium In Fish South of Fukushima

Extraordinary amount cesium from fish to south of Fukushima (Fukushima Diary, Nov. 3, 2011):

11/2/2011, Fukushima local government announced their radiation measurement data of fish in about 50 km area from Fukushima plants.

They took 109 samples for some reason but 7 of them had cesium, which is even over the “safety limit”.

  • Greenling: 770 Bq/ Kg, 1,050 Bq/Kg
  • Stone flounder: 1,180 Bq/Kg
  • Jacopever: 1,420 Bq/Kg
  • Komonkasube: 780 Bq/Kg, 1,260 Bq/Kg
  • Flatfish: 610 Bq/Kg

They are not supposed to be released for sale.

(Source)

Now Canada Plans To Test West Coast Fish For Fukushima Radiation

West Coast fish to be tested for Fukushima radiation (CBC NEWS, Aug 19, 2011):

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency plans to start testing fish off the coast of British Columbia for the presence of radiation stemming from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan earlier this year.

The agency has not yet released any specific details on the testing program, but did say it expects the test results to be well below Health Canada’s actionable levels for radiation.

Fisheries activist Alexandra Morton with the Raincoast Research Society says she supports the testing, but calls the announcement a political move. Morton says millions of sockeye have started returning to the Fraser River and the fishing season is already well underway.

Salmon are a particular concern to Morton and others because their wide-ranging migration patterns can take them right across the Pacific Ocean to the coast of Japan.

“If they were actually concerned about the health of people and the fish, they would have started this actually at the beginning of the commercial openings. But to release this two days before the disease hearings at the Cohen inquiry, to me it’s a political statement, it’s a political effort to appear responsible,” she said.

The Cohen Commission hearings into the collapse of the 2009 Fraser River sockeye salmon run resumed in Vancouver earlier this week.

Morton also wants the CFIA to test farmed salmon, because she says trace amounts of radiation were detected in seaweed on the B.C. coast.
Radiation levels soared in Japan

Following the failure of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, concentration of radioactive iodine-131 in seawater in the area soared to 1,250 times the normal figure, the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said in March.

Radiation began seeping from the plant when a magnitude 9 earthquake and a tsunami on March 11 knocked out its cooling systems. The contamination has made its way into milk and vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower and turnips tested in Japan.

But radioactive iodine-131 has a half-life of eight days, which means in several weeks its threat reduces to a minuscule level, according to nuclear experts.
Canadian tests found no concerns

CFIA says it tested 165 food and feed products imported from Japan after the disaster and found all were below Health Canada’s levels for concern.

The agency also tested 34 samples of domestically produced milk from British Columbia and all were found safe for consumption.

Negligible levels of radioactivity in the atmosphere were also detected along the West Coast by monitoring stations following the disaster.

“The radiation levels found on the West Coast are less than the natural levels of radiation that would be detected when it rains or snows,” said a statement released by the CFIA.

Greenpeace: Excessive Radioactive Cesium Found In Fish Samples Caught 55 Km From Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Excessive radioactive cesium found in Fukushima fish: Greenpeace (Mainichi, August 9, 2011):

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Fish caught at a port about 55 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant contained radioactive cesium at levels exceeding an allowable limit, the environmental group Greenpeace said Tuesday.

The samples taken at Onahama port in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, in late July, included a species of rockfish that measured 1,053 becquerels per kilogram. The reading, the highest among the samples, is well in excess of the government-set limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram, according to a study conducted by the environmental group.

The other samples, which were all rock trout, measured between 625 and 749 becquerels per kilogram, again exceeding the provisional limit.

The second such study of marine products was conducted over three days from July 22 in Iwaki and the town of Shinchi with cooperation of fishermen and those related to the fisheries industry in Fukushima. A total of 21 samples taken in the study were analyzed at a research institute in France, according to the group.

“There is no allowable limit for internal exposure that can conclusively be said not to pose any problems,” Greenpeace said in a petition submitted to Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday, noting the need to keep consumption of the food containing elevated levels of radioactive materials to a minimum.

Read moreGreenpeace: Excessive Radioactive Cesium Found In Fish Samples Caught 55 Km From Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Vermont: Radioactive Fish Found In Connecticut River — More Testing Needed To Determine Source of Strontium-90

Vermont finds contaminated fish as nuclear debate rages (Reuters, Aug 2, 2011):

* Vermont Yankee could close by March 2012

* Entergy fighting for reactor survival

NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) – Vermont health regulators said
on Tuesday they found a fish containing radioactive material in
the Connecticut River near Entergy’s (ETR.N) Vermont Yankee
nuclear power plant which could be another setback for Entergy
to keep it running.

The state said it needs to do more testing to determine the
source of the Strontium-90, which can cause bone cancer and
leukemia.

Read moreVermont: Radioactive Fish Found In Connecticut River — More Testing Needed To Determine Source of Strontium-90

The Tuna Deception: Skipjack Tuna (Katsuo) Caught Off The Coast Of Fukushima Shipped To Other Ports in Other Prefectures

Don’t miss:

Friggin’ Unbelievable: Fukushima Radiation Health Risk Advisor Prof. Dr. Yamashita Of Nagasaki University On Fukushima And Radiation (MUST-SEE!!!)


#Radiation in Japan: Katsuo (Skipjack Tuna) Haul Is Zero at Onahama Port in Fukushima (EX-SKF, July 6, 2011):

Katsuo (shipjack tuna) is in season, and in a normal year the port of Onahama, Fukushima Prefecture should be bustling with activities, with fishing boats hauling katsuo they caught into the port, noisy auctioning by the wholesalers.

This year is anything but normal, and the amount of the haul at the Onahama port is zero. Zero.

Where are the fishing boats loaded with katsuo going? Other ports, so that the katsuo that they catch off the coast of Fukushima and all along the Pacific North can be sold as coming anywhere but from Fukushima.

(In other words, watch out, consumers.)

From Yomiuri Shinbun (7/7/2011):

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The Onahama Port in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, the biggest port in Fukushima Prefecture and one of the best known port for hauling katsuo (shipjack tuna) in the Tohoku region, finds itself in difficult times.

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It’s the prime season for katsuo fishing right now, but the katsuo hauling at the port, which reopened three weeks ago for the first time since the March 11 tsunami, is zero. It’s because fishing boats head for other ports in other prefectures, fearful that their catch will be considered “caught in Fukushima Prefecture”, a big negative in the aftermath of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. The local fishery people lament, “katsuo all come from the same fishery….”

Read moreThe Tuna Deception: Skipjack Tuna (Katsuo) Caught Off The Coast Of Fukushima Shipped To Other Ports in Other Prefectures

Hong Kong Finds Radioactive Iodine-131 In Fish

Hong Kong finds radioactive iodine in fish (AFP, May 28, 2011):

A SMALL amount of radioactive iodine-131 has been found in a sample of fish taken from a wholesale market in Hong Kong, the Government said today.

Hong Kong has been monitoring radiation levels in the city’s food and water supply and atmosphere in the wake of the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power station.

Read moreHong Kong Finds Radioactive Iodine-131 In Fish

Fairewinds’ Founder Maggie Gundersen Interviews Environmental Scientist Marco Kaltofen: Radiation In Food Is Going To Be A Nationwide Problem In The US!

Fairewinds’ founder Maggie Gundersen interviews environmental scientist and professional engineer Marco Kaltofen about his ongoing analysis of radioactive fallout from Fukushima.


Added: 03.05.2011

There are no safe levels of radiation:

‘Fukushima: Gross Miscarriage Of Radiation Science’ – Childrens Cancer Risk From Radiation Is 10 To 100 Times Higher For The Same Exposure To Adults

Physicians For Social Responsibility Press Conference (04/26/2011): Chernobyl, Fukushima And Nuclear Power – Disturbing Facts!

Dr. Helen Caldicott On The Japan Nuclear Disaster – The Truth MSM Won’t Tell You! (Video)

Dr. Steven Wing And Chief Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen Discuss Global Radiation Exposure and Consequences: There Is No Safe Dose of Radiation

UC Santa Cruz Nuclear Expert Daniel Hirsch: ‘Every Amount of Radiation Exposure Increases Your Risk of Cancer.’ ‘There Is No Safe Level of Radiation.’

Dr. Helen Caldicott: How Nuclear Apologists Mislead The World Over Radiation

Dr. Brian Moench: There Is No ‘Safe’ Exposure To Radiation

Dr. Peter Karamoskos: Don’t Be Fooled By A Never-Ending Cabal Of Paid Industry Scientific ”Consultants’ – Radiation Is Bad And Causes Cancer

Are There Safe Levels of Radiation? How Much Radiation Is Safe? (Must-read!!!!!)

Dr. Helen Caldicott (Co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility):

The Propaganda From The Government And The Nuclear Industry About Low-Level Radiation Is Absolute Rubbish:

You’ve bought the propaganda from the nuclear industry. They say it’s low-level radiation. That’s absolute rubbish. If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area, because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years later, that person develops cancer. Now, that’s true for radioactive iodine, that goes to the thyroid; cesium-137, that goes to the brain and muscles; strontium-90 goes to bone, causing bone cancer and leukemia. It’s imperative that you understand internal emitters and radiation, and it’s not low level to the cells that are exposed. Radiobiology is imperative to understand these days.”

Japan Health Ministry Detects High Radioactivity In Fish, 11 Kinds Of Vegetables


Watch the video here.

The health ministry has detected radioactivity above the legal limit in fish caught off Fukushima Prefecture and 11 kinds of vegetables grown in the prefecture.

The ministry says it found 12,500 becquerels per kilogram, or 25 times the limit, of radioactive cesium in small fish called sand lances caught off Iwaki City, south of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Wednesday. It also discovered 12,000 becquerels, or 6 times the limit, of radioactive iodine in the fish.

On April 7th, sand lances caught off the city were already found to be contaminated with radioactive cesium in excess of the limit. Sand lances caught off Ibaraki Prefecture, south of Fukushima, were also found to be polluted with the radioactive substance.

Read moreJapan Health Ministry Detects High Radioactivity In Fish, 11 Kinds Of Vegetables

California: Countless Millions Of Dead Fish Found Floating In Redondo Beach Harbor

Photogallery here : http://lang.dailybreeze.com/photos/photos.asp?a=1187239#id=1187239&num=0


(NaturalNews) In what is perhaps the most startling and disturbing mass animal die-off yet, countless millions of dead anchovies were found this morning floating in King Harbor Marina in Redondo Beach, Calif., according to reports from The Daily Breeze. Officials say they do not know the cause of the event at this time and that investigations are underway.

Like the many other animal die-off events in recent months, experts have been quick to dismiss the situation and provide otherwise reasonable-sounding hypotheses for why the event occurred. One idea put forth by Sgt. Phil Keenan of the Redondo Beach Police Department suggests that there must have been too many anchovies packed into one area and that the oxygen supply in the water became depleted.

Read moreCalifornia: Countless Millions Of Dead Fish Found Floating In Redondo Beach Harbor

Canada: Dead Herring Wash Ashore On Second Beach In Cedar

Another beach in Cedar has been found covered with hundreds of dead herring that washed ashore.

The fish were found Monday near the beach house in Cedar-By-The-Sea, a short distance from the beach north of Boat Harbour where Will Meeks found a large number of dead herring on Friday.

Brenda Spence, a spokeswoman for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, speculated early Monday — before the latest discovery — that sea lions eating through nets used in the food and bait herring fishery in the Georgia Strait was the likely cause of the first incident.

Read moreCanada: Dead Herring Wash Ashore On Second Beach In Cedar

Mysterious Infection Is Killing BC Salmon

Large numbers of sockeye salmon are dying in the Fraser River, before spawning, because of a mysterious virus, new research suggests.

Historical records show that some fish always die en route to their spawning beds, but since the early 1990s the problem has become increasingly acute – with more than two million fish dying in some years. Researchers have long puzzled over what was causing the seemingly healthy fish to suddenly stop swimming and turn belly up.

A large team of researchers from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and three Canadian universities has now found most of the fish that die before spawning have a common “genomic signature” – or a pattern that shows changes have taken place in an array of genes activated to fight infection.

Read moreMysterious Infection Is Killing BC Salmon

Growing Power: Growing Fish in Greenhouses – 1 Million Pounds of Food on 3 Acres


Added: 13. March 2009

Growing Power is an innovative urban farm in Milwaukee.


Added: 6. May 2009

Milwaukee’s Growing Power, a community-based urban food center, is using plants as natural water filters for raising yellow perch. Fred Binkowski, an aquaculture specialist with the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, provides technical advice on the experimental effort.
www.growingpower.org
www.seagrant.wisc.edu

Thousands of Fish Wash Up in Chicago and Hundreds of Birds Perish in California

Related articles:

Thousands of herring-type fish dead along Chicago lakefront (Reuters)



Another mass death: Thousands of gizzard shad fish have washed up on banks of Chicago’s harbours

Thousands of gizzard shad fish have been washed up on Chicago’s harbours while more than 100 dead birds have been found clustered on a California highway.

The two instances appear to be a continuation of the strange mass animal deaths that have struck in the past fortnight – in America and elsewhere.

However Lake Michigan Program biologist Dan Makauskas said that gizzard shad are not a very tough variety of fish and are more sensitive to drops in oxygen levels than most fish.

Mr Makauskas suggested that the young fish may not have built up enough reserves to withstand the early onslaught of extreme cold that hit the area.

Canada geese and mallard ducks have eaten many of the dead fish.

Meanwhile, California wildlife officials are attempting to work out what caused the death of more than 100 birds found clustered together just off Highway 101.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports that California Highway Patrol officers found the dead birds near the roadway on Saturday and called in the state Department of Fish and Game to investigate.

The officers who found the birds described them as small with brown and black feathers.

They were intact and had not been shot.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:44 AM on 12th January 2011

Full article: Daily Mail

US: Mysterious Death of 2 Million Fish in Chesapeake Bay

Maryland officials are investigating the mysterious death of an estimated 2 million fish in the Chesapeake Bay.

The fish, spotted from Bay Bridge south to Tangier Sound, are mostly adult spot, and some croaker (pictured above), according to the Baltimore Sun, which first reported the incident.

State officials believe the fish kill is the result of unseasonably cold waters – not water-quality problems. For example, the Sun reports that water temperatures dropped to near-record lows in late December.

That’s largely the result of December’s average air temperature being 32.4 degrees, 4.3 degrees below average.

Read moreUS: Mysterious Death of 2 Million Fish in Chesapeake Bay

Hundreds of Dead Snapper Fish Wash Up On New Zealand Beach

See also:

US: Hundreds More Blackbirds Fall From The Sky – This Time in Louisiana

US: Up to 5,000 Blackbirds Fall Dead Out of The Sky, Autopsies Find No Poison

US: Up to 100,000 Fish Found Dead Along Arkansas River



Horror haul … dead fish floating and washed up on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Hundreds of dead snapper have washed up on Coromandel beaches on the North Island of New Zealand, leaving holidaymakers perplexed.

The mysterious incident came as the southern United States was hit with a second unexplained mass bird death within a week.

People at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay, on the north-east of the peninsula, were stunned when children came out of the sea with armfuls of the fish and within minutes the shore was littered with them.

Charlotte Pearsall, whose family have lived at Little Bay for the last 30 years, said she had never seen anything like it.

“It was so surreal,” she said. “It’s such an incredible waste – it could’ve fed the whole northern tip of the Coromandel.”

People with binoculars said the snapper stretched as far as they could see and boaties reported “a carpet of floating fish further out to sea all along the coast”.

“We initially thought ‘woohoo a free feed’ but they had really cloudy eyes and you could see the birds had been at them. Some of them had no eyes,” Pearsall said.

Read moreHundreds of Dead Snapper Fish Wash Up On New Zealand Beach

US: Up to 100,000 Fish Found Dead Along Arkansas River

State officials on Monday were investigating why 80,000 to 100,000 fish washed up dead on the shores of the Arkansas River last week.

“The fish deaths will take about a month” to determine a cause, Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, told msnbc.com.

Stephens also provided the estimate of 80,000 to 100,000 dead fish.

The fish were found Thursday by a tugboat operator along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near the city of Ozark.

The mass kill occurred just one day before thousands of blackbirds dropped dead from the sky in Beebe, Ark., which is 125 miles away.

Officials said 95 percent of the fish that died were drum fish — indicating that the likely cause of death was disease as only one species was affected.

“If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish,” Stephens added.

Read moreUS: Up to 100,000 Fish Found Dead Along Arkansas River

10 Freakiest Things About Frankenfish

This article was written by the Organic Consumers Association’s Political Director, Alexis Baden-Mayer. To take action to stop Frankenfish, please click here.

10. Frankenfish Aren’t Animals, They’re “Animal Drugs”

Obama’s FDA is regulating genetically engineered salmon, a genetically modified organism (GMO) that is the first of its kind, not as an animal, but as an animal drug. Normally, a veterinary drug would be used for health purposes, but there’s no therapeutic benefit associated with jacking up an Atlantic salmon with the genes of a Chinook salmon and the eel-like ocean pout to make it grow twice as fast. On the contrary, genetic engineering increases the salmon’s mortality, disease and deformity. So, why would the FDA treat a the first genetically engineered animal for human consumption like a drug? The idea came from the biotech industry. They knew that the FDA’s animal drug process would keep companies’ “proprietary” information secret, while limiting public participation and downplaying food safety concerns. Genius.

9. The GMO Part of the GMO Salmon Isn’t Being Safety Tested

Since 1992, the FDA has operated under the legal fiction created by the Bush-Quayle Administration that there is no risk associated with the human consumption of genetically engineered plants and animals. The FDA explains that DNA is Generally Recognized as Safe, so genetically engineered DNA is safe, too, and it doesn’t have to be safety tested. Source: FDA’s Statement of Policy – Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties (PDF)

8. Frankenfish DNA Could Change the Bacteria of Your Gut

A human study conducted by the UK’s Food Standards Agency found that consuming genetically engineered soy can result in “horizontal gene transfer,” where the bacteria of the gut takes up the soy’s modified DNA. With GMO salmon, the bacteria of our digestive tracks could take up the engineered salmon genes, but the FDA isn’t looking into whether this would happen or how it might effect our health.

7. If It Swims Like a Salmon, FDA Says It’s Safe to Eat

Instead of reviewing the safety of consuming genetically engineered salmon DNA, the FDA food safety review is a simple quacks-like-a-duck-style comparison of genetically engineered and normal salmon for hormone levels, nutrition, and allergenic potency.

6. FDA Lets the Frankenfish Company Test Its Own Product’s Safety

Read more10 Freakiest Things About Frankenfish

FDA Refuses to Require Labeling of GM Salmon

And the justification for that is that dumb Americans don’t need to know what they eat, or what?


gm-salmon-nears-us-approval

(NaturalNews) As the FDA stands poised to approve genetically modified (GM) salmon safe for public consumption, the next logical question concerns how GM salmon would be labeled. Would the fish come with a large red warning that says, “Genetically modified salmon”?

As it turns out, no. In fact, the FDA has already gone on the record stating it will not require any special labeling of genetically modified salmon. You, the consumer, just have to take a wild guess because you’re not allowed to know what you’re really eating.

The biotech industry takes this absurdity one step further by claiming that labeling GM foods would just “confuse” consumers. David Edwards, the director of animal biotechnology at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, explained it in this way: “Extra labeling only confuses the consumer,” he says. “It differentiates products that are not different.”

Except that they are different. If they were really no different, then AquAdvantage company wouldn’t be growing them. The whole point of genetically modified salmon is that they are modified with extra growth hormone genes to make them grow more quickly. I don’t know where David Edwards is getting his information, but in the rest of the world, when something is different, that means it’s different.

If it’s no different, then why are so many GM salmon processes patented? If it’s no different, there would be nothing to patent. The entire purpose of a patent is to make a legal claim that “we invented something different” and we own the monopoly rights to it.

The GM salmon industry can’t have it both ways, you see. They can’t claim it’s so unique that their technologies and animals should be proprietary or patented, yet when it comes to food labeling, they claim there are no differences. It’s either different or it isn’t, and in the case of GM salmon, only an outright liar would look you in the eye and claim GM salmon is identical to regular farmed salmon or wild-caught salmon.

FDA insists on keeping people in the dark

The FDA, for its sad part in this saga, claims that it would be against the law to require the honest labeling of GM foods. This agency claims that since GM salmon is identical to regular salmon (it’s “no different” once again, they say), they can’t require it to be labeled any differently.

Read moreFDA Refuses to Require Labeling of GM Salmon

GM Salmon Nears US Approval

US: GM Salmon May Go On Sale:

Among the considerations by the FDA is whether, if the fish is approved for consumption, it must be labelled as genetically engineered.


Consumer groups fear green light for engineered species will bring environmental disaster to the oceans

gm-salmon-nears-us-approval
A genetically modified salmon, rear, and a non-genetically modified salmon, foreground. Photograph: AP

Buried in a prospectus inviting investors to buy shares in a fledgling biotech company is an arresting claim attributed to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

“Commercial aquaculture is the most rapidly growing segment of the agricultural industry, accounting for more than $60bn sales in 2003. While land-based agriculture is increasing between 2% to 3% per year, aquaculture has been growing at an average rate of approximately 9% per year since 1970.”

Read moreGM Salmon Nears US Approval

Bolivia’s Biggest Ecological Disaster: Cold Kills Estimated 6 Millions And Thousands of Alligators, Turtles And River Dolphins

Antarctic cold snap kills millions of aquatic animals in the Amazon.

bolivia_biggest-ecological-disaster_cold-kills-estimated-6-millions-and-thousands-of-alligators-turtles-and-river-dolphins
The San Julián fish farm in the Santa Cruz department of Bolivia lost 15 tonnes of pacú fish in the extreme cold.Never Tejerina

With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere’s recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country’s tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins.

Scientists who have visited the affected rivers say the event is the biggest ecological disaster Bolivia has known, and, as an example of a sudden climatic change wreaking havoc on wildlife, it is unprecedented in recorded history.

“There’s just a huge number of dead fish,” says Michel Jégu, a researcher from the Institute for Developmental Research in Marseilles, France, who is currently working at the Noel Kempff Mercado Natural History Museum in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. “In the rivers near Santa Cruz there’s about 1,000 dead fish for every 100 metres of river.”

With such extreme climatic events potentially becoming more common due to climate change, scientists are hurrying to coordinate research into the impact, and how quickly the ecosystem is likely to recover.

The extraordinary quantity of decomposing fish flesh has polluted the waters of the Grande, Pirai and Ichilo rivers to the extent that local authorities have had to provide alternative sources of drinking water for towns along the rivers’ banks. Many fishermen have lost their main source of income, having been banned from removing any more fish from populations that will probably struggle to recover.

The blame lies, at least indirectly, with a mass of Antarctic air that settled over the Southern Cone of South America for most of July. The prolonged cold snap has also been linked to the deaths of at least 550 penguins along the coasts of Brazil and thousands of cattle in Paraguay and Brazil, as well as hundreds of people in the region.

Water temperatures in Bolivian rivers that normally register about 15 ?C during the day fell to as low as 4 ?C.

Read moreBolivia’s Biggest Ecological Disaster: Cold Kills Estimated 6 Millions And Thousands of Alligators, Turtles And River Dolphins

US: GM Salmon May Go On Sale

Food and Drug administration begins 60-day process to approve animal critics call a ‘frankenfish’

gmo_salmon
A genetically-modified AquAdvantage salmon, top, next to a control salmon of the same age. (AP)

US authorities today began the process to approve the first GM animal for human consumption.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a 60-day period of consultation and public meetings over whether to permit a GM strain of salmon to be eaten by humans, even though it has been called a “frankenfish” by critics. The approval process could take less than a year, and if it gets the green light the fish could be on the market in 18 months.

Environmentalists and scientists see the decision as marking a threshold. If it is approved it is likely to open the door to a large range of GM animals being raised for consumption. If not, scientists say that will have a negative effect on research, in part because there will be no money to be made from it.

Among the considerations by the FDA is whether, if the fish is approved for consumption, it must be labelled as genetically engineered.

GMO Alert: US Attempting Global Censorship of GMO Food Labeling

The AquAdvantage salmon – a modified North Atlantic salmon – has been created by AquaBounty Technologies in Boston, Massachusetts, over 14 years at a cost of $50m. The company says the salmon grows at twice the speed of similar fish, cutting costs for farmers and greatly increasing production.

Read moreUS: GM Salmon May Go On Sale