Fadel Muhammad, the Marine and Fishery Affairs Minister, after the signing of a joint agreement with Women Affairs and Children Protection Minister Linda Gumelar on Wednesday said the Indonesian waters would be safe amidst rising fear over the pollution of waters off Fukushima.
The issue saying that fish in Indonesia were contaminated by nuclear radiation from Japan was totally incorrect. If the waters around Fukushima was totally contaminated by radioactive substances, such thousands of mile in a distance between Japan and Indonesia will minimilize the effect of substance, he said.
"Practically such direct effect toward Indonesian sea could be minimilized, even the nuclear reactor in Fukushima is really worse condition," Fadel further said.
Furthermore, Fadel said that Fukushima disaster was predicted to be smaller if compared to such Chernobyl explosion in April 1986. So Fukushima could only bring about small impact on ecosystem of waters in Japan which will never affect Indonesian waters and its biota to be contaminated.
In addition, by heeding the pattern of sea current on global surface, the possibility of waters contamination in Japanese sea to be dragged to Indonesian waters is relatively small.
If seen from domain flow of the sea current in the waters of East Japan leading to the north and south as well as its convergence following tsunami attack which eventually moved to the East, it exactly indicated hat the potential to make Indonesian waters polluted is too small.
The fear on possible migration fish from Japan which have been contaminated by nuclear radiation is groundless due to the fact that the fish living in the northern part of Pacific Sea is quite different from those in southern part including those in the equatorial region. So it is impossible for fish living in Japanese waters to migrate to the waters under 10 North Latitude, let alone to Indonesia.
The possibility to migrate for fish in Japanese waters to Indonesian waters is slim, as the flow of global current in Pacific ocean strengthened by the flow of Equatorial counter current in the Northern region will turn right before reaching Indonesian waters.
Even till now, there is not such an evidence that the fish from Japan are contaminated by radioactive substance. To convince the public on misleading issue, the marine and fishery ministry for the time being will have to stop the entry of marine and fishery products from Japan to Indonesia.
Besides stopping the import for the time being, the ministry will cooperate with the national nuclear agency to test possible radioactive content on sample of fish in Pacific waters.
According to Fadel, through information like this the public would remaining believing the quality of local fish and government would continue providing fish for family consumption. If compared to other menu like meat, fish is very rich in nutriation and suitable for consumption of young children and senior people.
Omega 3, 6 and 9 found in fish have actually given some benefits to the baby, five year children in their growth in order to make them more active and smart and prevent them from possible disease. In addition, fish also needs smaller energy than that needed in cooking meat.
For further information, please contact Dr. Ir. Yulistyo Mudho, M.Sc, Head of Data, Statistical and Information Center of the Marine and Fisheries Ministry (Mobile: 0811836967)
Reporter: Adityawarman
Editor: PR Wire
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