About 50 scientists will be working together to analyze kelp samples and see if they have been contaminated with radioactive chemicals from the nuclear power plant leak in Japan in 2011.
Matt Edwards, one of the biologists from the San Diego State University (SDSU), will collect kelp samples to determine if they picked up the radioisotopes cesium-134 and cesium-137. These radioactive chemicals were from the leak which affected Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant in Japan. The chemicals reached the coast of California through ocean currents and rainstorms.
To collect the kelp, Edwards and his team will go to the Point Loma kelp forest. The kelp forest measures five miles in length and is considered as the northern hemisphere's largest area where kelps are thriving. Edwards is also aiming to collect samples from the northern coast of San Diego County. Other collection spots include areas in Alaska, Pacific Northwest, and Baja California.
"We don't know if we're going to find a signal of the radiation," Edwards said to UTSanDiego.com. "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's sample collection is part of the efforts of Kelp Restoration Project which started gathering more evidence of the radioactive contamination in the waters of Southern California and to find out if the public has a reason to worry about the safety of the waters and the creatures living in it.
Steve Manley, head of the project, added: "Kelp is the perfect 'sentinel' organism for a project like this because it absorbs and concentrates things like radioactive material. Right now, the radioactivity from Fukushima has not reached here. If it does, we'll be able to measure it, even though it will be really diluted."
