Health authorities in Hong Kong have warned consumers, retailers and restaurant owners not to buy seafood from regions hit by last week’s tsunami.
The fears are based on concerns that the seafood may have become contaminated by pollutants stirred by the ferocious waves. Agricultural contaminants may have been washed into the seas by the waves, or heavy metals may have been lifted from the seabed.
The tsunami, triggered by a massive underwater earthquake in the Indian Ocean off the coast of the north Indonesian island of Sumatra on 26 December, crashed into coastal communities of 11 nations, killing some 145,000 people and leaving millions more homeless.