Thousands of tons of dead fish have washed up on a beach in northern Japan, prompting speculation that the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant has wrought havoc on local ecosystems.
The sardines and some mackerel washed ashore in Hakodate on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido on Thursday morning, creating an unsettling sliver blanket that covered almost a mile of shoreline.
Officials could not come up with an explanation for the phenomenon, but Takashi Fujioka, a Hakodate Fisheries Research Institute researcher, posited a number of theories as to why the fish could have died en-masse.
But this particular phenomenon occurred just three months after Japanese authorities began releasing treated radioactive water back into the sea - a move which angered its neighbours including China and South Korea.
China has since banned Japanese seafood and criticised the country as being 'extremely selfish and irresponsible', with the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper The Global Times writing it could open 'Pandora's box' and trigger fears of a 'real-life Godzilla'.
South Korean protestors also attempted to enter the Japanese embassy in Seoul carrying banners which read 'The sea is not Japan's trash bin'.
Thousands of tonnes of fish are seen washed up on shores
The phenomenon created an unsettling sliver blanket that covered almost a mile of shoreline
Local residents observing the shoreline in Hakodate said they had never seen anything like it.
Some gathered the fish to sell or eat, prompting the town to urge residents not to consume the fish in a notice posted on its website,
The decomposing fish could lower oxygen levels in the water and affect the marine environment, Fujioka said.
In March 2011 the Fukushima power plant was wrecked after an earthquake and subsequent tsunami destroyed the plant's cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt.
Now, an undersea tunnel is being used to discharge the radioactive water treated by the Advanced Liquid Processing System, which uses a process called isotopic dilution to render the water less dangerous.
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