Scientists are trying to figure why scores of seals have washed ashore in Alaska this year either dead or suffering from a mysterious disease.
The seals have lesions, irritated skin, and hair loss – often symptoms of radiation poisoning - and scientists worry it might have come from the Fukushima plant in Japan.
So far – there’s been no sign of elevated radiation in the waters in the Pacific Northwest - although the US government moved monitoring from daily to quarterly – but scientists are conducting tests to determine if indeed the seals have been poisoned by nuclear fallout making its way to US waters from Japan.
Test results aren’t expected for a few more weeks.
A study conducted earlier this month suggested that as many as 14,000 premature deaths in the United States – mostly among infants – might be attributed to nuclear fallout from Fukushima.
The world is clearly different now, post-Fukushima.