MINAMI-SANRIKU, Miyagi Prefecture--Early morning risers here got a glimpse of what the Earth would look like with two twin suns.
The rare sunrise mirage, called “Daruma asahi” (Morning sun shaped like a daruma doll), was seen on March 4 in Shizugawa Bay here, which is known as a good fishing ground where the warm and cold currents converge.
In the bay, seaweed beds, said to be “sea forests,” are abundant. The seaweed beds were seriously damaged by the tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. But many of the “kombu” kelp that take root in the rock reefs survived.
“The kelps have almost returned to their pre-disaster conditions,” said an official of the office that is preparing for the establishment of the Minami-Sanriku town government-run nature center.
The bay is the northern limit of one kind of kelp and the southern limit of another species of kelp. Because of the rarity, the town government is aiming next year to have the bay registered in the Ramsar Convention, which conserves internationally important wetlands.