Radiation killing seals in Alaska?
I wouldn't rule it out.
I would rule it out, at least at present. See for example
Buesseler, K.O. 2014. Fukushima and ocean radioactivity. Oceanography 27(1):92–105. From the abstract of that article:
Total releases from Fukushima are not well constrained, with estimates from atmospheric fallout and direct ocean discharge spanning 4 to 90 peta Becquerels (PBq), but are most likely in the 15–30 PBq range. This source is smaller than any 137Cs remaining in the North Pacific from global and close-in fallout from the 1960s. It is of similar magnitude to 137Cs released to the ocean from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site on the Irish Sea, though of greater magnitude than fallout that reached the ocean from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in the Ukraine.
AFLM, if I were you I would be more concerned with marine life in your neighborhood being effected by things closer to home, such as
Sellafield. How are the seals doing in your part of the world?
Note that I am not trying to minimize the significance of the ongoing Fukushima radioactive release. Releasing radioactivity into the environment is bad, no matter how it happens. However I haven't seen any convincing case that radiation is the issue with Alaska seals. We (the world-wide collective "we") are doing lots of bad sh*t to the oceans, like warming, acidification, etc etc. Recent work suggests that reduction of the polar ice pack has allowed previously separated popultions to mix, and share diseases. See
Disappearing Arctic sea ice may be helping spread diseases among mammals. This article refers mostly to populations in Nova Scotia, but it is entirely plausible that similar things are happening to Alaskan sea mammals.
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