Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: Migrant birds arriving in Kamchatka from the side of Japan will be tested for radiation, the Kamchatka government said.
The radiation monitoring will be done before the start of the spring hunting season, the government told the Russian news agency. The tests will be conducted at laboratories of the Federal Consumer Rights and Health Service and the Federal Phytosanitary and Veterinarian Control Service. Test results will be the basis for a decision on the opening of the spring hunting season.
Up to 1,00,000 geese and about 1 million ducks come to Kamchatka in spring. Many of these birds might have nested on Japanese islands or flown over lands polluted with radiation in the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in spring 2011, which makes the tests necessary.
The Kamchatka territory already tested migrant birds for radiation in 2011. No radioactive birds were found back then.
PTI
First Published: Monday, April 30, 2012, 13:43