SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Fishermen in this northeastern city resumed trial operations on Sept. 25 for the first time in three months, despite little hope of ever capturing the bounty their livelihood once provided.
SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture--Fishermen in this northeastern city resumed trial operations on Sept. 25 for the first time in three months, despite little hope of ever capturing the bounty their livelihood once provided. The Soma-Futaba fisheries cooperative association had postponed its initial plan to restart trial operations in early September, after hundreds of tons of radioactive water were found to be leaking into the sea from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Twenty-one trawlers left Matsukawaura Port early in the day and brought home 5 tons of seafood, including octopus and squid. Those confirmed safe for consumption in the sampling inspection will be shipped to markets, including the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward. Toshihiro Miharu, captain of the Gaho Maru, was one of the fishermen who eagerly awaited the day. Up until just a few days ago, Miharu had been spending his time collecting debris from the 2011 tsunami off the coast in his 19-ton trawler. “One can only be called a fisherman if he fishes,” Miharu, 54, said. “You cannot be a fisherman if all you do is collect debris.” Shortly before 5 a.m. the boat arrived at the trial operation area 50 kilometers off Matsukawaura Port, and the crew members cast the trawling nets. A buzzer sounded two hours later, and the crew started to haul in the nets. Even though only 16 marine products, including octopus, squid and horsehair crab, are targeted for test operations, the catch included flounder and many other species, which are restricted by the central government due to a high concentration of radioactivity. According to Miharu, slime flounder had sold well before the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. Miharu’s 50-year-old brother Yukihide, the chief engineer, and eldest son Yuta, 27, and other fishermen sorted and separated eligible species from the rest of the catch. A tatami mat and window frames were also found in the nets. The day's haul of the Gaho Maru totaled 2.5 tons. Of that, the target fish species weighed only 250 kilograms. The rest, or 90 percent of the catch, had to be thrown back into the sea. “Do you understand what it is like for a fisherman to throw away fish he caught into the sea?” Miharu asked. He then added, “I want the prime minister to come here and live with us since he said such a thing (his assurance that the Fukushima nuclear crisis is under control) at his speech in the bid for Tokyo to host the 2020 Olympic Games.” “I am a third generation fisherman,” Miharu said. “My father kept drinking at home to forget his hardship. So I used to think of working on the land, maybe as a sushi chef.” But Miharu succeeded his father after graduating from local high school. His son Yuta made clear he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps when he was in his third year at senior high school. For his successor, Miharu spent 150 million yen ($1.52 million) to build a new boat. The disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, situated on the coast, occurred only a few years later. Miharu is sympathetic to the anxieties of consumers with regard to food safety. “There is no prospect for resuming full-scale fishing operations,” Miharu said. “Old residents here buy fish from the sea off Fukushima Prefecture. But once a trace of concentration of radioactive material is detected (from fish), I—a fisherman—would not have my grandchildren eat it, either.” Fukushima Prefecture has been testing radioactive cesium levels in marine products caught in local waters since April 2011, one month after the reactor meltdowns. It measures weekly radiation levels of 150 or so fish samples at about 40 locations in waters off Fukushima Prefecture, except the area within a 5-km radius of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant. In tests in recent months, most marine samples, including olive flounder, marbled flounder and white bait, showed levels below the detection limit of 16 becquerels per kilogram. Most of the 16 target products for trial operations also showed low readings below the limit.