A group protesting a seemingly outdated reclamation project's lethal effects on marine life in what had been part of Nagasaki Prefecture's Isahaya Bay asked the fisheries ministry on Friday to abandon the project.

It was the 1,000th day since a section of the bay was choked off by floodgates, which the Association to Protect the Natural Environment of Isahaya says has resulted in the death of mudskippers and other marine creatures.

To mark the inauspicious milestone, a group of about 10 people handed a written demand to officials from the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, asking that the project be halted.

As a first step toward protecting the remaining marine life, the group, which had gathered in front of the ministry's headquarters in Tokyo, called on the government to immediately open the floodgates to let sea water back in.

The bay's once ecologically diverse tidal flats have virtually dried up since the desalination process began in April 1997, putting mudskippers and other marine creatures on the verge of extinction there, said Satoru Yajima, a member of the group.

The reclamation project got under way in 1985 to provide 1,500 hectares of farmland and a flood control reservoir.

Tamotsu Sugenami, a member of the World Wide Foundation for Nature Japan, claimed that the project's main objective when it was originally conceived -- to create farmland -- has become obsolete as the government continues to regulate rice production in the face of plummeting demand.

He also noted that the project's other function -- to prevent floods -- proved to be unrealistic when the city of Isahaya was hit by floods in 1997 and 1998.