Until the devastating events of March 11, Kesennuma port in Miyagi Prefecture was home to one of Japan's proudest fishing fleets.
Until the devastating events of March 11, Kesennuma port in Miyagi Prefecture was home to one of Japan's proudest fishing fleets.
Kesennuma's smaller boats worked the famous waters of the Sanriku coast, one of the world's richest fisheries, but its excellent port, nestled at the back of a long, narrow firth, was also home to deep-sea boats ranging hundreds of kilometers from home.
The Great East Japan Earthquake and the towering tsunami it triggered have changed everything.
The city's fish market, which handled 22.5 billion yen ($278 million) worth of fish in 2010, the eighth most in Japan, has sunk 10 centimeters. Its wharf is strewn with smashed boats and cars. Much of the city itself is a wasteland.
On Sunday morning, about 200 fisherman and fishery industry workers met at the Kesennuma fisheries cooperative association to grapple with their future.
One said baldly that the city's fishing industry was finished.
Another asked: "I have 700 workers. How am I supposed to pay their salaries while we try to rebuild the industry?"
The extent of the destruction was clear from the variety of concerns of those present.
A fishing company official asked: "Can we really rebuild a fish market on sunken land?"
Some had immediate practical concerns. "The refrigerator has broken and we have no ice or electricity. How can we dispose of fish that is defrosting?" one person asked.
Others saw a broader and even more depressing picture: "Fishing ports all along the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region have been totally destroyed. Will we receive sufficient support from the central government?"
And yet they will rebuild. A fisheries cooperative association executive said the city simply could not exist without its fleet: "People will not live where there is no industry. The bounty of nature that we protected lies off the coast." There was applause as well as calls expressing doubt.
Ryosuke Sato, the cooperative association head, said the fish market, famous for its tuna and skipjack tuna catches, had to be rebuilt. Shigeru Sugawara, the city's mayor, said: "Kesennuma will never die as long as it has the ocean."
Miyagi Prefecture boasts other prominent fishing ports, including Onagawa, Ishinomaki and Shiogama, and had the largest catch of any prefecture on Japan's main Honshu island before the earthquake.
In 2009, the total catch from fishing and fish farms reached 79.1 billion yen, the fourth largest in Japan as a whole. Its fisheries processing industry produced 281.7 billion yen in 2007, the second most in the country.
The Great East Japan Earthquake brought that proud industry to its knees. Miyagi Governor Yoshihiro Murai said the prefecture's fishermen and fishery companies would have to start again from nothing.
A prefectural government official responsible for promoting fishing said fishing ports throughout the prefecture had ground to a halt. All parts of the industry are at a standstill, including catching fish, unloading, processing and delivering products to consumers.
The tsunami washed away fishing boats and oyster farms, and many fishermen and fish farmers are now living in evacuation centers.
The wharfside offices of many of the wholesalers who used to buy the fish and sell it to retailers have been smashed by the tsunami, and, even if fishermen are able to get out to sea, the fish markets and wharves in many ports are out of action.
Gasoline shortages and damaged roads have slowed delivery of the fish to major consumer markets such as Sendai.
In the coming weeks, consumers outside the Tohoku region will likely feel the pinch.
The Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo handled only 1,639 tons of seafood transactions on Saturday, about 30 percent less than at the same time last year.
One fish market official said: "We have received fewer tuna, mackerel and other fish of which the Tohoku region has a high share. We have no idea how long this situation will last."
Major supermarkets have been unable to buy seafood from the Tohoku region. For the time being, fresh fish are likely to be replaced by imported, dried and frozen products in shops.
In smaller supermarkets in the Tokyo metropolitan area, fish paste products are also in short supply. Some supermarkets said they would have to look for seafood from other regions.
(This article was written by Hideyuki Miura and Masahiro Takahashi.)