Tag Archives: Fukushima fishermen

Water release finds little support in Fukushima

Most Fukushima fishermen are tight-lipped but Haruo Ono can’t keep his thoughts to himself on Japan’s plans to release treated cooling water from the stricken nearby nuclear power plant into the Pacific from Thursday. “Nothing about the water release is beneficial to us. There is no advantage for us. None. It’s all detrimental,” Ono, who lost his brother in the 2011 tsunami that crippled the plant, told AFP. “Fishermen are 100 percent against,” the 71-year-old said at his modest home in Shinchimachi, around 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of the nuclear plant in northeast Japan. “The sea is where we work. We make a living off of the sea, we’re at the mercy of the sea. So if we don’t protect the sea, who would?” >click to read< 07:43

Struggling Fukushima fishermen hold 1st New Year’s ceremony in 5 years – “All the fishermen looked happy.”

IWAKI, Fukushima Prefecture–Fishermen held a traditional New Year’s ceremony here on Jan. 8 for the first time since the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster killed their colleagues and ruined their livelihoods. With their vessels flying colorful banners, the fishermen gathered at Hisanohama fishing port in the northern part of Iwaki in the morning to pray for a safe and bountiful harvest. After traditional Shinto rituals were performed, the fishermen set off from the port to cleanse their 30 or so boats with seawater and sake. Read the rest here 19:41