3:30 PM - 3:48 PM
[U02-06] Reconstruction of fisheries from the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami (GEJE)- Studies on reconstruction of fisheries by TEAMS Project-
★Invited Papers
Keywords:the Great East Japan Earthquake, reconstruction of fisheries, Tohoku Ecosystem-Associated Marine Sciences (TEAMS), marine ecosystem
On March 11,2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake had occurred and big tsunami hit the coastal area in the Pacific coast of Tohoku region in northeast Japan. In the coastal area, many houses, buildings, fish processing factories, fishing vessels, ports, seawalls, and most of all facilities were destroyed. About 75% of destroyed materials and objects flowed to the sea and then fisheries had collapsed almost completely.
Although the damage situation on land is quite obvious, however, in ocean is quite difficult, because it cannot see easily, the actual conditions, such as quantity of rubble, existence of a toxic substance, a situation of fish and shellfishes, etc. were not known at all. It had to depend on investigation by a specialist of using research vessels, diving apparatus, scientific knowledge, etc. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology started the project, that is, “Tohoku Ecosystem-Associated Marine Sciences (TEAMS)” aiming at contributing to reconstruction of fisheries by scientific approaches. As the composition organization of a project, a representative organization is Tohoku University and vice ones are AORI and JAMSTEC. In addition, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Iwate University, Kitasato University, Tokai University, and Yammer Co., participated as organizations. Also many scientists and researchers have participated belonging to a lot of Universities and Research Institutes.
Fisheries including aquaculture are the industries which utilized the natural productive capacity, such as environment and ecosystem in the sea (also include a river and a lake) . Therefore, when revival of fisheries is aimed at, it becomes a base to get to know correctly whether marine environment and marine ecosystem changed into what kind of state by the GEJE scientifically. Neither the policy of reconstruction nor a vision can be formed without such information. TEAMS for which the experts of all the fields of marine sciences gathered, was begun from investigating the state of the range from the Sanriku coast to offshore, from the surface to the bottom. Change of bottom topography, the quantity of rubble, and the species and quantity of zooplankton and phytoplankton, sea water temperature and salinity, etc. The damage situation has been clarified by physical, chemical, biological, and earth scientific research are performed and compared with the data before the GEJE, such as quantity of distribution of a toxic substance, distribution of rubble, seed composition and distribution of a living thing, and nutrition salt, and a flow. Since the investigation area reached far and wide too much, the Onagawa and the Otsuchi bay were investigated at the base centering in Miyagi and Iwate Prefecture whose damage was the most serious.
The government specified the basic policy, that is, first five years as "concentration rehabilitation period" and following five years as "revival / creation period". TEAMS has clarified change of the marine environment and ecosystems which serves as a base of fisheries revival in the first five years. As a result of going focusing on marine environment and marine ecosystem monitoring investigation, there were the case returns to the situation or continues change still more, compare with the that before the GEJE. On the other hand, aquaculture began to be restarted. So, in the following period, monitoring investigation have been continued for accumulating the data, and the scientific research activities were also carried out. Furthermore, in order to contribute to deployment of future sustainable fisheries, the long-term monitoring data were utilized, and creation of a habitat map and construction of the physical model were performed. These results of investigations have presented not only in scientific symposia and meetings in and outside of Japan, but also for the stakeholders, such as fishermen, fisheries-related organization, local governments, citizens, students.
Although the damage situation on land is quite obvious, however, in ocean is quite difficult, because it cannot see easily, the actual conditions, such as quantity of rubble, existence of a toxic substance, a situation of fish and shellfishes, etc. were not known at all. It had to depend on investigation by a specialist of using research vessels, diving apparatus, scientific knowledge, etc. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology started the project, that is, “Tohoku Ecosystem-Associated Marine Sciences (TEAMS)” aiming at contributing to reconstruction of fisheries by scientific approaches. As the composition organization of a project, a representative organization is Tohoku University and vice ones are AORI and JAMSTEC. In addition, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Iwate University, Kitasato University, Tokai University, and Yammer Co., participated as organizations. Also many scientists and researchers have participated belonging to a lot of Universities and Research Institutes.
Fisheries including aquaculture are the industries which utilized the natural productive capacity, such as environment and ecosystem in the sea (also include a river and a lake) . Therefore, when revival of fisheries is aimed at, it becomes a base to get to know correctly whether marine environment and marine ecosystem changed into what kind of state by the GEJE scientifically. Neither the policy of reconstruction nor a vision can be formed without such information. TEAMS for which the experts of all the fields of marine sciences gathered, was begun from investigating the state of the range from the Sanriku coast to offshore, from the surface to the bottom. Change of bottom topography, the quantity of rubble, and the species and quantity of zooplankton and phytoplankton, sea water temperature and salinity, etc. The damage situation has been clarified by physical, chemical, biological, and earth scientific research are performed and compared with the data before the GEJE, such as quantity of distribution of a toxic substance, distribution of rubble, seed composition and distribution of a living thing, and nutrition salt, and a flow. Since the investigation area reached far and wide too much, the Onagawa and the Otsuchi bay were investigated at the base centering in Miyagi and Iwate Prefecture whose damage was the most serious.
The government specified the basic policy, that is, first five years as "concentration rehabilitation period" and following five years as "revival / creation period". TEAMS has clarified change of the marine environment and ecosystems which serves as a base of fisheries revival in the first five years. As a result of going focusing on marine environment and marine ecosystem monitoring investigation, there were the case returns to the situation or continues change still more, compare with the that before the GEJE. On the other hand, aquaculture began to be restarted. So, in the following period, monitoring investigation have been continued for accumulating the data, and the scientific research activities were also carried out. Furthermore, in order to contribute to deployment of future sustainable fisheries, the long-term monitoring data were utilized, and creation of a habitat map and construction of the physical model were performed. These results of investigations have presented not only in scientific symposia and meetings in and outside of Japan, but also for the stakeholders, such as fishermen, fisheries-related organization, local governments, citizens, students.