Prospects for the controversial Isahaya Bay reclamation project in Nagasaki Prefecture are growing dim given the mistrust generated by the government's politicization of the issue. The floodgates are to be opened next spring (at the earliest), following a round of scientific surveys. But no one, including the government, can be sure what will happen after that.
The output of nori, a principal product in the adjoining Ariake Sea, has dropped sharply this year, although the specific cause of the damage remains unclear pending results from the environmental studies now under way. To local fishermen dependent on the sea, however, political inaction is a matter of life and death. Authorities need to take appropriate steps to ease their plight.
Recent nori auctions -- the last for the harvesting season that ended in late April -- epitomized the crisis of the local fishing industry. According to the National Federation of Fisheries Associations, the total number of nori sheets supplied by the four prefectures on the Ariake Sea -- Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Saga and Nagasaki -- fell 36 percent from last year to 2.33 billion. In terms of value, sales dropped 33 percent, even though unit prices rose because of the poor harvest.