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In the town of Kuroshio, also in Kochi, elderly residents and others were urged to evacuate voluntarily to safer locations.

Yamawaki said whales have been sighted on and off not only in Osaka Bay but across Japan, noting experts’ view that whales generally follow the movement of the warm Kuroshio tide.

Consequently, the Sekisei Lagoon marks a significant biogeographical milestone in the northward migration of benthic organisms within coral reefs along the Kuroshio Current's dispersal route.

Experts say the waste water could be carried by ocean currents, particularly the cross-Pacific Kuroshio current.

But the model’s predictions weren’t any better than a guess in some areas, including the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic’s Gulf Stream and Japan’s Kuroshio Current.