Radiation Tracers Improve Conservation Efforts

Emily Anthes in Frankenstein's Cat argues that human beings have a moral responsibility to other species. She discusses that in modern times, human beings are a force of nature, and whatever we do as a species affects other species whether we intend for the actual consequences or not. Human activity has been largely responsible for the extinction and endangerment of many species. In fact, some may argue that a sixth mass extinction is occurring due to human activity causing extinctions at a very rapid rate. We need to figure out how to shape animals' bodies and lives in order to help them survive.

I read an article in the Scientific American, titled “A Silver (Actually Cesium) Lining: Traces of Fukushima Disaster Fallout Help Scientists Track Tuna” and it was published recently on March 11, 2013. The author, Marissa Fessenden, discusses how bluefin tuna near Japan were struggling, since it was a highly popular sushi dish. Due to human fishing activity, the population of bluefin tuna was declining rapidly. This relates to the concept in Frankenstein's Cat that human activity affects other species, often negatively whether we want that to happen or not. In the bluefin tuna, it was discovered that a nuclear disaster resulted in those fish having radiation. However, the radiation does not harm the fish or the people that eat the fish, since the radiation is not at a dangerously high level. Since the bluefin tuna have traces of radiation on them, scientists can track them and help to conserve them. The tuna absorbed cesium isotopes while swimming in the area affected by the nuclear accident, which can help scientists to track their migration patterns. By understanding migration patterns of the bluefish tuna, there can be better management strategies in conservation efforts. It is currently unknown as to how many bluefish tuna there are, but by using radioactive tracers to track migration patterns, scientists can better understand where the fish are coming from and the size of certain populations of species. Scientists plan on following the same tracking strategies to other animals like sharks and turtles.  They will insert radioactive tracers on to whales, sharks, and turtles such as those on the bluefish tuna to estimate population size and the effects of fishing, which ultimately helps in improving conservation efforts. Overall, this method is helpful in conserving animals that frequently migrate in the ocean, since it is tough to know their population size and how many die from fishing without some kind of tracer. This relates to the concept in Frankenstein's Cat that we need to find ways to shape animals' bodies in order to help conserve endangered species. By inserting radioactive tracers into the muscles of ocean-dwelling animals, scientists are shaping their bodies in a way that helps them to determine how many die from human fishing activity, thus improving conservation efforts of the fish.

Sources:

Anthes, Emily. (2013). Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts. 1^st Edition. New York: Scientific American/ Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

Fessenden, Marissa. (2013). “A Silver (Actually Cesium) Lining: Traces of Fukushima Disaster Fallout Help Scientists Track Tuna.” www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cesium-lining-tuna