Japan slams ‘sensationalist’ UK tabloid report linking mass fish death to Fukushima water
- A Daily Mail article speculated that the death of thousands of fish in Hokkaido was related to Japan’s release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant
- A fisheries ministry official condemned the piece as ‘inaccurate’, while one expert said there was ‘virtually no possibility’ the two events could be linked
The article in the December 8 edition of The Daily Mail said there was “speculation that the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant has wrought havoc on local ecosystems”.
Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries condemned the reporting as “inaccurate and sensationalist”, with an official telling This Week in Asia that the Foreign Ministry had been in touch with the journalist who wrote the story to correct the inaccuracies.
“We are angry and disappointed at this report,” said the fisheries ministry official, who declined to be named. “This sort of phenomenon, of schools of fish dying and being washed ashore, is fairly common around the world, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the Fukushima power plant.
“The story in the newspaper said the two issues are linked, and that is simply inaccurate and sensationalist.”
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Thousands of dead sardines, mackerel wash up off the coast of northern Japan
The Daily Mail article did mention that marine experts said the fish were likely to have died from a lack of oxygen in the shallow waters off Toi village, or because the large school of sardines and mackerel had been weakened after they encountered a sudden pocket of much colder water as they migrated along the east cost of Hokkaido.