The Saga District Court has ordered the state to keep open the gates of the dike in the Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture for five years, ruling in favor of some 2,500 fishermen who claim that the land reclamation project damaged the local fisheries. The ruling would effect a revamp of the state's policy. But the state, which has denied that the closure of the bay harmed the fisheries, is poised to appeal the ruling.
The fishermen are from four Kyushu prefectures bordering the Ariake Sea, which contains Isahaya Bay. In 1997, the interior of the bay was closed via a 7-km dike, leading to the loss of 1,550 hectares of tidal wetlands and eventually turning the interior into a freshwater lake. The work on the ¥250 billion project was completed this March and farmers began tilling fields on the reclaimed land the following month.
In the trial, the fishermen claimed that the closure damaged the Ariake Sea's environment and called for the dike's removal. While rejecting the claim that the closure damaged the entire Ariake Sea, the court decided that the closure is responsible for the damage to fishing grounds in and near Isahaya Bay. It said that the closure weakened sea currents, causing the quality of the bay's environment to deteriorate.