Japan’s Kyodo News says sand eels caught in coastal waters of Ibaraki Prefecture were found to have four-thousand-80 becquerels of radioactive iodine per one kilogram.

The amount of radioactive iodine allowed by the Japanese government for vegetables is two-thousand becquerels per kilogram, but Tokyo has no such standard for fish.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said the recent finding overturns the Nuclear Safety Commission’s statement that the government does not need to come up with an allowable limit of radioactive iodine for fish since the substance does not accumulate inside a fish’s body.

As a result, the ministry reportedly has begun to consider establishing such a guideline for fish.

Despite the radioactive contamination, Japan on Monday began releasing over 10-thousand tons of contaminated water out of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex into the Pacific Ocean.

The pumping of radioactive hazard is aimed at securing storage space in the nuclear plant for even more contaminated water.