Deadliest Catch: Apathy?

Apathy?

Words by danny bracco photos by donny urrutia It’s BEEN MORE THAN THREE YEARS since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Japan and led to the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, and debate about the safety of Pacific Ocean seafood still hits the blogosphere like aftershocks. Everyone from scientists to fishermen to college students struggle to get their perspective—and their article—to go viral. With so much conflicting information, my reaction is arguably the most dangerous of all: a shrug. Is it the potentially poisonous fish that will kill me, or will it be my apathy to the potentially poisonous fish? Because I love food, and seafood is especially good. Especially in California. Even more especially in San Francisco.

“With So Much

These articles wrap their click-bait one-

Conflicting

liners (“Fish migrating 3,000 miles with radioactivity!” versus “Radioactive levels in

Information, My Reaction Is

fish are one-twentieth the levels found in a common banana!”) with the perfunctory

Arguably the

hyperlinked studies and mentions of cesium-137

Most Dangerous

radioisotope, surely designed to cause mass

Of All: a Shrug.”

skimming (check). What lingers is uncertainty-fueled disinterest.

Is this the 2010s version of warning cries not to hold cell phones to your face for fear of radiation and tumors; or is Fukushima radioactivity the new global warming, with scary data about the future being swept away in favor of big business today?

The social media saturation of global and local health woes rides a constant fever pitch. How can I be expected to worry about how much radiation is in my spicy tuna roll when the Ebola virus is poised to bring Contagion to life? And why stress myself out over a holy-shit scary disease on another continent when the next huge San Francisco earthquake is poised to rip the concrete beneath my feet and home apart at literally anytime between now and who knows when?

Is this what adulthood is—acknowledging all of life’s dangers and dealing with them in an educated, active way? Or am I right to prioritize these threats in order of immediacy and location (i.e., get earthquake insurance and exercise to keep myself healthy, or at least healthy-adjacent), and embrace ignorance’s gift of bliss?

I’m sure, as with most things, finding the balance is the key. Hopefully I find that balance before three-eyed tuna finds me.