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No Japanese radiation danger in salmon: CFIA

Food inspectors say fish tests turned up nothing
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A freshly caught batch of Fraser River sockeye salmon.

Salmon tested after returning to B.C. show no signs of elevated radiation levels from their migration through ocean waters feared to be contaminated by the Japanese nuclear disaster earlier this year.

"Twelve samples of domestic fish were tested and all products were below Health Canada action levels," according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

All samples came back showing no detectable levels levels of radioactive cesium.

Spokesperson Alice D'Anjou said the samples covered pink, chum, coho, sockeye and spring salmon and albacore tuna.

"They were collected at various points across the British Columbia fishery," she said.

Fraser River sockeye migrate as far west as the Bering Sea, although some observers say they were likely on their way back to B.C. when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled multiple nuclear reactors and released radiation through the air and contaminated seawater.

CFIA officials had said they didn't expect anything to turn up, but conducted the tests out of an abundance of caution, primarily to reassure Canadian consumers and export markets.

The agency had previously tested air samples, milk and foods imported from Japan.

No further testing is planned.