Ezo Seafoods-Hokkaido Seafoods Specialists

(translation of article that appeared in Hokkaido Shimbun on April 26th).

On April 25th, representatives from 6 Fishing Cooperatives and mayors from four towns that sustained heavy damage to scallop cultivation farms as a result of the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami including Yakumo, Oshamambe, Shikabe and Mori, all located in the Watarijima area, visited the Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and applied to vice Minister Tsutsu Nobutaka for support in rebuilding scallop cultivation facilities in the area.

They applied for assistance to help rebuild damaged farms, assistance in dismantling and removing wrecked facilities and junk, and assistance in acquiring cultivation facilities for common usage. Head of the Yakumo Fishing Cooperative Hiroshi Obayashi said “Growers in Funkawan suffered massive damages. There is no spat. The damage is particularly large because scallop spat is grown by many individual farmers.” Mayor of Oshamambe Shirai Kennichi stated, “If we don’t act now, we may not be able to ship for the following 2 years,” and expressed concerns about the decline of the scallop cultivation industry. Vice minister addressed the concerns by stating “We want to do whatever we can to assist you.” Damage to scallop cultivation industry in the Funkawan area totals around 14.1 billion yen (approx US$111 million). In Yakumo, where mature scallop shells were buried in mud and 90% of spat has been lost, losses amount to 10.6 billion yen. In Oshamambe losses amount to around 1.3 billion yen.