© Issei Kato / Reuters
On Friday fishermen caught flounder off the coast of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, during the first test fishing since the 2011 nuclear disaster, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reports. Flounder along with ten other kinds of fish was added to the list for "test-fishing" last week, meaning it is "safe" for sales.
As many as five flatfish were captured with the help of 11 boats equipped with dragnets.
"It is a big step [for flounder fishing]," said Akira Egawa, head of the Iwaki city fishery association. "We are going to recover one by one."
Following the nuclear disaster the government issued an outright ban on more than 35 kinds of fish including flounder, angler fish and rockfish which were said to contain high levels of radioactive substances.
The ban has had a huge effect on Fukushima's fishing industry which has significantly gone down after 2011. Around 5,600 tons of fish were caught off Fukushima coast last year compared to about 38,600 tons before March, 2011.
After March 2011, 50 percent of the fish samples tested for radiation levels exceeded the government-imposed limit of 100 becquerels per kg. However, after April 2015, no fish exceeded that number, according to The Japan Times.
Comment: The Japanese government has been pushing for a 'return to normal' ever since the disaster and is likely to continue to bury or ignore any evidence of safety concerns. Extremely high levels of radioactivity are still being found off the Fukushima seabed - hundreds of times higher than before the disaster - yet they want us to believe the fish will be safe for consumption?