Huge Waves Damage Anti-Whaling Boat

Jakarta Globe, December 29, 2011

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said the Brigitte Bardot's hull
split when it was struck by a "rogue wave." (Agency Photo) 

Relatedarticles

• Sea Shepherd Says Drones Find, Photograph Japan’s Whaling Fleet
• Anti-Whaling Activists Use Drone to Track Japan Fleet
• When Whaling Is the Priority, Don’t Count on Japan's Recovery
• US, Australia, NZ ‘Disappointed’ with Japan Whale Hunt
• Japan Halts Antarctic Whaling for Rest of Season

Sydney.Anti-whaling activists chasing the Japanese harpoon fleet suffered a majorsetback on Thursday when the hull of one of their ships cracked in massiveseas, forcing a second to divert to its rescue.

The SeaShepherd Conservation Society said the Brigitte Bardot’s hull split when it wasstruck by a “rogue wave” as it tailed the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru insix meter swells some 2,400 kilometers southwest of Australia.

“The crackhas been getting wider as the seas continue to pound the vessel,” the activistgroup said.

SeaShepherd spokesman Paul Watson said lead vessel the Steve Irwin was en route tothe troubled Brigitte Bardot, which has also suffered severe damage to one ofits pontoons, but warned it would take 20 hours to get there.

TheBardot’s captain, South African-born Jonathan Miles Renecle, was “confidentthat the ship will stay afloat until the Steve Irwin arrives” he added.

“This isdisappointing but these are hostile seas and we have always been prepared forsituations like this,” Watson said.

“Right nowthe safety of my crew on the Brigitte Bardot is our priority and we intend toreach the crew and then do what we can to save our ship.”

Theincident means just one Sea Shepherd vessel, the Bob Barker, is now tailing theJapanese fleet, which it intercepted on Sunday with the help of amilitary-style drone.

Watson saidall the crew were safe and uninjured and the Bardot, Sea Shepherd’s scoutvessel, was “repairable.”

“We’ll bebringing it back to Fremantle and then the Steve Irwin will return to supportthe Bob Barker,” he told Sky News via satellite phone from the Southern Ocean,estimating that it would be a five-day trip.

“It’s asetback, but you know, when you come down here you’re facing a number ofdangers, not just the Japanese whaling fleet but also the very remote area,it’s a hostile area weather-wise with ice,” he added.

Watson saidit was Sea Shepherd’s eighth season pursuing the whalers and it was “inevitablesomething (like this) is going to happen sometime, we’ll just deal with it andcarry on.

“I’m stillconfident that we’ll be able to intervene against the Japanese whalingoperations,” he said.

Australia’sMaritime Safety Authority said it had been monitoring the situation but therewas no active rescue afoot because Sea Shepherd was managing the situation.

“We wereaware of it, but it was really a monitoring brief for us because it was a SeaShepherd vessel to which another Sea Shepherd vessel was going to the aid,” aspokesman told AFP.

“We were incommunication with them but they’ve got it under control themselves now.”

Japan’sFisheries Agency, which commissions the annual whale hunt, routinely refuses tocomment on the issue and declined to be drawn on the damaged boat Thursday.

“I cannotmake any comment related to the (whaling) mission,” an agency official said.

SeaShepherd purchased the Australian-flagged Brigitte Bardot, a high-speed100-foot monohull racer, to replace the futuristic speedboat Ady Gil, whichsank during a fierce clash with the harpooners in January 2010.

Watson saidthere were 10 crew on board the stricken Bardot — three Britons, threeAmericans, an Australian, a Canadian, a Belgian and its South African captainRenecle.

Commercialwhaling is banned under an international treaty but Japan has since 1987 used aloophole to carry out “lethal research” in the name of science — a practicecondemned by environmentalists and anti-whaling nations.

Confrontationsbetween the whalers and increasingly sophisticated activists have escalated inrecent years and the Japanese cut their hunt short last season due to SeaShepherd harassment.

Japan’scoastguard has deployed an unspecified number of vessels to protect the whalingships, using some tsunami reconstruction funds, and the whalers are also suingthe activists in Washington seeking an injunction against what they say is a“life-threatening” campaign.

Agence France-Presse

Related Article:

Sea Shepherd anti-whaling boat damaged by wave

Sea Shepherd demands release of Dutch activist

RNW, 26December 2011

The SeaShepherd Conservation Society has launched a campaign to obtain the immediaterelease of one of its activists, a Dutchman, arrested in Japan ten days ago.

Erwin Vermeulen
(Photo: Sea Shepherd)

Theanti-whaling organisation urges visitors to its facebook account to make callsand write letters to the Japanese foreign ministry and other authorites.

Accordingto Sea Shepherd, the Dutchman, a volunteer named Erwin Vermeulen, is still inShingu City Police custody. He was arrested on 16 December when attempting tofilm the transfer of dolphins from the sea to holding pens at the Japanese resortof Tajii.

An employeeclaims that Erwin pushed him; there were no other witnesses to this allegation.The organisation says a decision to release him or continue to keep him in jailis expected on 27 December.

Every year,Tajii is the scene of a massive dolphin hunt, with the Japanese authoritiesissuing 23,000 licenses to coastal areas for dolphin slaughter. Some animalsare sold to aquariums worldwide.

Vermeulenhad travelled to Japan at his own expense to collect footage of the slaughter.

Related Articles:

Dolphins Spared From Slaughter in Japan’s Infamous Cove

An undatedhandout photograph released by Sea Shepherd Conservation

 showing Japanesefishermen slaughtering dolphins in blood-soaked water in

 Taiji, Japan. ThoughDophins were herded into the cove made famous by an

 Oscar-winning documentary,none were killed this year. 

(EPA/Sea Shepherd Conservation)

Dolphin bloodbath exposed

Covecover-up ... tarpaulins hide the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan

Cruel ...filming shows spike rammed into animal

Dolphin hunt goes on in Japan town despite protests

Japan whale meat case echoes apartheid: Greenpeace chief

Whistleblower aims to expose dark side of Japanese whaling

Japanese tsunami fund 'used for whaling programme'

BBC News, 7December 2011

RelatedStories 

• NZ condemns Japan's whaling plans
• Antarctic whaling 'to continue'
• 'Clean-up bid' for whaling body

Japan cut short its whaling season last year
because of harassment by anti-whaling activists

Japan hasused funds from its tsunami recovery budget to subsidise its controversialannual whaling programme, animal rights activists say.

Greenpeacesays 2.3bn yen ($30m; £19m) is being used to fund extra security measures forthe whaling fleet.

Japaneseofficials argued when they applied for extra funding that whaling helpedcoastal communities.

The whalingfleet reportedly headed for Antarctic waters this week, though Tokyo has notconfirmed the reports.

There hasbeen a ban on commercial whaling for 25 years, but Japan catches about 1,000whales each year in what it says is a scientific research programme.

Critics saythose claims are just a cover for a commercial operation, and accuse theJapanese of hunting the animals to the brink of extinction only for food.

Militantanti-whaling groups attack the fleet every year, and last year forced theJapanese to abandon its programme before it was completed.

Earlierthis year, the Japanese Fisheries Agency applied to the government for extrafunding for its programme from the emergency budget aimed at helpingcommunities recover from the devastating tsunami and earthquake.

The agencyargued that some of the towns and villages affected relied on whaling for theirlivelihoods.

Activistssay the agency's funding request was approved and it has spent the money onextra security and covering its debts.

JunichiSato, from Greenpeace Japan, told Australia's ABC that there was no linkbetween the whaling programme and the tsunami recovery.

"It issimply used to cover the debts of the whaling programme, because the whalingprogramme itself has been suffering from big financial problems," he said.

TheAustralian and New Zealand governments have both criticised Japan's decision tocontinue whaling.

They areboth considering sending vessels to monitor the whaling fleet.

Meanwhile,activists from the militant Sea Shepherd group have promised that they willcarry on their campaign against the whaling fleet.

Related Article:

Japan whaling fleet accused of using tsunami disaster funds

A Japanese ship injures a whale with its first harpoon.
Photograph: Kate Davidson/EPA/Corbis

Japan to go ahead with whale hunt

Whalerswill have heightened security after last year's season was marred by clasheswith activists

guardian.co.uk,Associated Press in Tokyo, Tuesday 4 October 2011

Japanese whaling ship No. 3 Yushin Maru (left) and the Sea Shepherd's ship
the Bob Barker collide last year. Whalers will have more security to fend off
activists this year. Photograph: AP

Japan willgo ahead with its whaling me in the Antarctic later this year under heightenedsecurity to fend off activists who have vowed to disrupt the annual hunt, thecountry's fisheries minister said Tuesday.

Japan'swhale hunts have become increasingly tense in recent years because of clasheswith the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The most recent expedition was cutshort after several high-seas confrontations, and it was unclear whether thehunt would be held at all this year.

Butfisheries minister Michihiko Kano said that measures would be taken to ensurethe whalers' safety, and that the hunt would go ahead. It is expected to beginin December.

"Weintend to carry out the research after enhancing measures to assure that it isnot obstructed," he said.

Commercialwhaling has been banned since 1986, but Japan conducts whale hunts in theAntarctic and the north-western Pacific under an exception that allows limitedkills for research purposes.

Japan'sgovernment claims the research is needed to provide data on whale populationsso that the international ban on commercial whaling can be re-examined – and,Japan hopes, lifted – based on scientific studies.

Opponentssay the programme is a guise for keeping Japan's dwindling whaling industryalive. The Sea Shepherd group, which is already rallying to block the upcominghunt, has been particularly dogged in its efforts to stop the kills.

Last year'sseason was marred by repeated incidents with Sea Shepherd vessels, one of whichsank after colliding with a Japanese ship. The boat's captain, New ZealanderPeter Bethune, was later arrested when he boarded a whaling ship from a jetski, and brought back to Japan for trial.

He wasconvicted of assault, vandalism and three other charges and given a suspendedprison term. Bethune has since returned to New Zealand.

Sea Shepherdrecently announced that it is calling its effort to obstruct the Decemberexpedition "Operation Divine Wind" – a reference to the"kamikaze" suicide missions carried out by the Japanese military inWorld War II.

Thoughvilified by anti-whaling organisations around the world, the government'sstrong pro-whaling position has the support of the Japanese public, accordingto an AP poll conducted in July and August which found that 52% favour it, with35% neutral and 13% opposed.

Once acommon item on school lunch menus, whale meat can be found in stores andrestaurants in Japan. But, because of its relatively high price, it isgenerally regarded as a gourmet food by the public.

Japan launches Pacific 'research' whaling

Herald Sun, From correspondents in Tokyo From: AFP June 11, 2011

Sea Shepherd's newest speedboat was instrumental in cutting short Japan's
whale "research" in January. Picture: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society / Eye
In The Sky Magazine. Supplied

JAPAN sent a whaling fleet to the northwest Pacific for what it called a research hunt today, four months after cutting short a similar mission in the Antarctic due to obstruction by activists.

The three-vessel fleet, led by the Nisshin Maru, plans to catch 260 whales including 100 minkes until late August to study their stomach contents, DNA and other information, according to the Institute of Cetacean Research.

The government-affiliated institute has organised such operations since 1987, citing a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling which allows hunts for scientific research.

Anti-whaling nations and environmentalist groups condemn the activity as a cover for commercial whaling but Japan said it is necessary to substantiate its claim that there is a robust whale population in the world.

The institute said the mission would be its 18th scientific expedition to the northwest Pacific.

On February 18, Japan halted a research hunt in the Antarctic Ocean for the 2010-2011 season, which had been due to run from December until March, because of obstruction by militant environmentalist group Sea Shepherd.

The US-based Sea Shepherd, which says its tactics are non-violent but aggressive, hurled paint and stink bombs at whaling ships, snared their propellers with rope, and moved its own boats between the harpoon ships and their prey.

The four-ship fleet killed 172 whales in that season, only about a fifth of its target, the fisheries agency said at the time.

Australia - which last year launched legal action against Japan's whaling program at the International Court of Justice - and New Zealand said they hoped Japan had given up whaling for good.

The institute told Japanese media that there has been no instance of obstructive activities in the northwest Pacific so far but that "we cannot automatically consider the area safe".

Related Article:

Australians shun beef after Indonesia abattoir film

Fishermen: Utility's actions in Japan nuclear crisis 'unforgivable'

CNN News, By the CNN Wire Staff, April 6, 2011

Fishmongers check bluefin tuna before an auction at the
fishmarket in Shiogama, Miyagi prefecture on Monday, April 4.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Merchants at the world's largest fish market estimate an 80% drop in sales
• Members of Japan's fishery association met Wednesday with Tokyo Electric officials
• The group cites "rage" among fishermen for what it called "irresponsible behavior"
• A Japanese official says fishermen will get money for suffering due to the nuclear crisis

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japanese fishermen have taken the offensive in their fight against the owner of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant, angrily calling the utility's actions insulting, incompetent and "unforgivable" over the course of the weeks-long nuclear crisis.

The National Fishery Corporative Joint Association, a trade group for Japan's fishing industry, issued a scathing statement Wednesday just hours after its members met with officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the crippled plant.

In it, the group demanded that the utility and the Japanese government "compensate all parties (that have) indirectly or directly suffered" as a result of the situation.

"Tokyo Electric has not been capable of understanding the damage at the plant and (contaminated) water. That led to this serious situation," the group said in the statement.

"Tokyo Electric and the government (share) responsibility for this situation. It is unforgivable," the message continues. "All those who are living and sustaining their lives on the sea are feeling strong rage against (the utility and the government's) irresponsible behavior."

Members of the fishing group said they are particularly angry about the decision made and enacted Monday to dump tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. This happened just hours after the group specifically requested it not be done -- leaving its members feeling ignored.

Yoshiaki Saito, who has sold fish for 40 years at Tokyo's Tsukiji Market, told CNN how angry he is at Tokyo Electric. "If we put poison in the river, we'd be arrested," he said. "But TEPCO won't be treated like that. It's unfair."

He's also angry at what he called the "stupid government."

Fishery association representatives Wednesday also blasted Tokyo Electric's claim that nuclear power plants were safe and that such accidents would never happen.

An official from the utility company said Tokyo Electric officials offered apologies and vowed to improve the situation. This was shortly after they confirmed, early Wednesday, that one leak outside the No. 2 reactor, through which water that had radiation levels millions of times the legal limit, was no longer rushing into the sea.

The fishing industry demanded an end to all leaks of contaminated water into the sea "to prevent the death of the fishing industry."

"We demand that Tokyo Electric and the government react to all the problems provoked by this outrageous decision (to dump radioactive water in the sea) and flush out highly contaminated water" now in the ocean, the association said in its statement.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano on Wednesday apologized for how the government had communicated why the dump of the radioactive water from the plant was necessary.

He explained that it contained 1/200,000ths the level of radiation as that in and around the No. 2 reactor, one of six at the nuclear plant, and that authorities decided to clear out the less radioactive liquid in order to make room in a waste water treatment facility.

"So it was a measure to prevent more serious marine contamination," the Japanese official said. "But we needed to explain the reasoning better to the people (impacted by it)."

Whatever the radiation level, Timothy Jorgensen, chair of the radiation safety committee at Georgetown University Medical Center, explained that this dumped water should quickly dilute considering it is equivalent to dumping five swimming pools worth of water into a Pacific Ocean that has roughly "300 trillion swimming pools full of water."

Still, Japanese authorities have noted higher-than-normal radiation levels in some young eels. And in addition to its impact on aquatic life directly, some fear the mere possibility of radiation in seafood may deter consumers domestically and abroad from eating products that originated in waters off Japan.

Citing such "rumors," Edano said Tuesday that authorities will step up the monitoring of radiation in seafood, partly in a bid to assure the public that whatever gets on the market is safe.

The new Japanese government standards will rely upon enforcement by city and town health inspectors, not those with the prefectures, according to Edano. As with milk and vegetables, certain fish can be removed from the restricted list if levels of radiation come in below the legal limits for three weeks in a row.

As to the fishermen themselves, the Cabinet official said Wednesday that, in addition to a larger compensation package to be decided upon later, the government is considering a preemptive payout.

Merchants at the world's largest fish market, Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, told CNN they have seen an 80% drop in sales.

Similar payments will likely go to farmers, who have been explicitly affected by the nuclear crisis much longer than those in the fishing industry.

Japan first imposed restrictions on the sale and distribution of milk and certain vegetables, like spinach, on March 20 -- more than two weeks before Edano announced Tuesday that radiation levels would similarly be regulated in seafood.

One scientist, whose institute will start conducting research next month tracking radiation off Japan, said it's likely that such levels in fish will increase for six months -- as the contamination gets in the food supply -- then gradually go down over two or more years.

Still, given the standards now being set, he thinks people should feel comfortable eating seafood from Japan.

"The current regulations are quite reasonable," said Jin Misonou, a research fellow for the Tokyo-based Marine Ecology Research Institute. "So, of course, please eat fish. It is good to revive the fishing industry."

CNN's Kyung Lah and journalists Hiroo Saso and Gen Shimada contributed to this report.

Related Articles:

TEPCO detects radioactive seawater 7.5 mln times the legal limit

Japan fears radioactive contamination of marine life

Japan`s demand for Indonesia`sidat fish increases

Antara News, Sun, April 3 2011

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Japanese demand for young `sidat` (eel, anguilla) fish from Indonesia is increasing after the country was recently hit by an earthquake and its subsequent tsunmai, a ministry official said.

"The catching of sidat seeds in South Korea and Japan is being banned after the natural disaster while in Indonesia it is allowed," Ketut Sugama, director general for fishery affair, said here on Sunday.

He said that the need for Sidat fish in Unagi for example reached 600,000 tons while only 200,000 tons of these portion had been met.

The senior official of the Ministry of Maritime and Fishery Affairs made the remarks when attending the harvest season of `vaname` shrimps in Karawang`s Cultured Fish Production Center Project (BLUPPB), in West Java.

He said that the Japanese people liked this fish because they believed the fish could lengthen their ages, keep them at a young look and maintain their stamina.

Therefore, he said, in anticipation of the increase in the demand for the fish from Japan, his side is offering investors a cooperation to develop the fish production in Indonesia, particularly in the Karawang`s BLUPPB.

"We are opening a chance for investors to develop sidat fish breeding here but they should involved in partnership and transfer their technology to local businesses," he said.

In the meantime, head of the BLUPPB Supriyadi said a Japanese investor had now been ready to develop sidat fish in the government-owned integrated fish pond project.

He said that PT Nippon Maru was ready to run a three hectare sidat pond with an annual production target of 3,000 tons.

Of the 400 hectare fish ponds in the integrated fish breeding project, some 225 hectares are managed by the government and 152 hectares by plasm whose development later would be given to investors.

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

Japan fears radioactive contamination of marine life

Fukushima coastal waters sees high levels of radioactive iodine, which could build up in seaweed commonly eaten in Japan

guardian.co.uk, Ian Sample , science correspondent, Wednesday 30 March 2011

Radioactivity fears deliver a double whammy to Japanese fisheries which
have already been badly hit by the tsunami. Photograph: Everett Kennedy Brown/EPA

High levels of radiation in the sea off the coast of Fukushima have raised concerns over harm to local marine life and the risk of contaminated fish, shellfish and seaweed entering the food chain.

Tests on seawater near the nuclear power plant showed that levels of radioactive iodine reached 3,355 times the legal limit on Monday, one of several peaks in recent days that have fallen rapidly as radioactive substances decayed and were steadily diluted and dispersed by ocean currents.

Officials are watching levels of iodine-131 in seawater because although it has a half-life of eight days, meaning it is half as radioactive after that time, the substance builds up in seaweed, a common food in the Japanese diet. If consumed, radioactive iodine collects in the thyroid and can cause cancer.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said iodine-131 in seawater would "soon be of no concern" presuming there are no further discharges of contaminated water from the power station into the sea.

The IAEA added that Japanese authorities have released the first analyses of fish, caught at the port of Choshi, in Chiba prefecture south of Fukushima, which found one of five to be contaminated with a detectable level of caesium-137, a far more persistent radioactive substance, though at a concentration that was far below safety limits for consumption.

Many countries, including Britain, have begun radiation testing of fish, shellfish and other fresh produce from Japan or have imposed wider bans on imports from the region. Fisheries are not entering waters within the 20km (12-mile) exclusion zone around Fukushima, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

The fate of many local seafood and shellfish farms, including scallops, oysters, sea urchins and sea snails, was sealed more than two weeks ago when the tsunami wiped out beds and destroyed fishing vessels and ports around Fukushima. In Iwate prefecture, authorities say the disaster may have wiped out businesses that account for 80% of the revenue of the region's fisheries.

At the Fukushima power plant, engineers continued the arduous task of trying to pump contaminated water from turbine rooms and trenches, which is hampering work to connect the reactor cooling systems to the national grid.

Tepco, the power station operator, plans to spray parts of the site with a resin to stop radioactive dust blowing off the site and is considering shrouding the reactor buildings with sheets to reduce radiation being released into the air.

Fish and other sea creatures are unlikely to be seriously harmed by the radioactive leaks, even in the most contaminated areas. After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, fish in three freshwater lakes within the exclusion zone became contaminated with radioactive caesium but showed no obvious health problems, though some fish were born with reproductive abnormalities which may have been caused by radiation, said James Smith, an environmental physicist at Portsmouth University who studied fish in the area.

While fish accumulate radioactive contamination, this happens less in the ion-rich waters of the oceans than in freshwater lakes.

Related Articles:

Radiation levels in seawater off Japan plant spike to all-time highs

Greenpeace: many more people should be evacuated from Fukushima area

Dolphin toll from BP oil spill far higher: study

Feds forbid scientists probing Gulf dolphin deaths from speaking to media

Tsunami ravaging Kesennuma port (Video)

March 2011's tsunami ravaging Kesennuma port, destroying everything on it's path.

Related Articles:

Tsunami's terrifying power is revealed in new clip as fresh 6.5-magnitude quake hits Japan

Misplaced trust: 30-foot tsunami wall didn't save Japanese village

Radiation in seawater off nuclear plant spikes to 1,250 times normal

CNN News, By the CNN Wire Staff, March 26, 2011

Workers in protective suits prepare Thursday to decontaminate two
nuclear plant workers in Fukushima, Japan.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The previous day, levels were only 104 times above normal
• A Tokyo Electric official says it's not known what caused the spike
• Radiation in seawater near nuclear plant tests 1,250 times above normal
• Radiations levels in tap water in Ibaraki prefecture now considered safe

Tokyo (CNN) -- Tests showed a sharp spike in levels of radioactive iodine in seawater just offshore of the embattled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are more than 1,250 times higher than normal, Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency said Saturday.

In samples taken Friday morning from a monitoring station 330 meters off the coast, the levels were 50 becquerels of radioactive iodine per cubic centimeters of water. This compares to 4 becquerels -- which is 104 times above normal -- in samples taken from the same spot the previous morning.

These high levels suggest there may have been some sort of leakage directly into the ocean -- unlikely to be because of atmosphere emissions or rain alone, said an official with the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the nuclear plant.

A Tokyo Electric official told CNN that authorities are not sure why the levels spiked. The official speculated that the radioactive iodine may have been swept off the coast recently into the Pacific Ocean or the tainted water may have seeped from turbine buildings for two nuclear reactors that have shown the presence of radiation 10,000 times the normal amount.

Still, an official with Japan's nuclear safety agency told reporters Saturday that -- while drinking such tainted seawater would be dangerous, given the radiation's potential to cause cancer -- the effect on aquatic life imay be relatively minimal.

That's because the radiation tends to dilute, the farther one moves away from the nuclear plant. Data posted on the Japan's education and science ministry website showed relatively small amounts of radioactive particles several kilometers offshore.

The International Atomic Agency reported online Saturday that radioactive iodine and cesium was detected 30 kilometers (19 miles) offshore, but it said that these levels differed only slightly from the previous day.

That said, its potential effect on Japan's fishing industry -- even if consumers stay away, for simple fear of contamination -- remains a major concern. So, too, is the fact that authorities have yet to pinpoint the exact source of the radiation, and thus to determine if it's stopped.

The latest data, from Friday, posted online by Japan's education, science and technology ministry show continuing evidence of airborne radiation in prefectures around the nation. Still, in no cases is the exposure considered harmful to human health -- and, in fact, in many cases, radiation readings have gone down.

In the Fukushima prefecture where the plant is located, officials had screened 87,813 people for radiation exposure as of Thursday, Japan's nuclear safety agency said a day later in a news release.

Of those 98 people had tested above limits for exposure, but once their clothes were removed and other measures taken, the exposure levels dropped and there was no effect on health.

The agency also said screeners have examined thyroid glands of 66 children ranging in age from 1 to 15 and found that the "level of exposure of no problem."

The thyroid gland, particularly in children, can readily absorb radiation, health experts say.

Meanwhile, authorities continue to monitor radiation levels in tap water around Japan.

RELATED TOPICS

• Japan
• Nuclear Energy
• Earthquakes
• Tsunamis

Information from Japan's education, science and technology ministry indicate the presence of radioactive iodine in the tap water of 12 prefectures. This does not include Fukushima and Miyagi, where measurements aren't being taken because of damage from the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

The government of Ibaraki prefecture reported Saturday that radiation levels had fallen considerably in the past 24 hours -- to levels that now would be considered safe enough even for babies to drink.

Levels of radioactive iodine, taken Friday from water treatment facilities that serve the cities of Tokaimura and Hitachi, range from 31 to 97 bequerels per kilogram of water.

This is below the 100 becquerel threshold at which authorities advise it not be drinken by infants under 1 year old -- and well under the 300-becquerel threshold for adults.

A day earlier, water samples from four sites in Ibaraki had levels between 119 becquerels of radioactive iodine to a high of 230 becquerels, all above the recommendations for babies.

A second batch of data released Friday from Tokyo's waterworks bureau showed levels remaining steady at 51 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram of tap water.

There were 76 becquerels from samples from Asaka purification plant, which serves Saitama prefecture, according to data on the Tokyo government site.

The previous day, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara lifted the previously announced recommendation that babies not drink tap water after tests from Tuesday night showed levels of radiation more than twice the limit for babies.

There was also good news Friday's in the Chiba prefecture, where all five water treatment facilities had levels of radioactive iodine less than 100 becquerels per kilogram of tap water. The previous day, two plants in Chiba had reported high levels.

Related Article:

Official: Workers touched water with radiation 10,000 times normal

MOX plutonium fuel used in Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor two million times more deadly than enriched uranium

Fukushima workers in hospital after radiation exposure

Japanese face radiation risks on two fronts

Mothers receive bottles of water at a distribution office
in the Adachi ward of Tokyo. The government has warned
that infants should not be allowed to consume tap water.
(Haruyoshi Yamaguchi, Bloomberg / March 24, 2011)

Japan's Chernobyl? Radiation pressure fears at Fukushima plant