Coronavirus casts shadow over quake-affected ports in Tohoku

Kikuo Abe, 71, left, and his wife, Hiroko, 68, take shako squillas out of a net in the early morning of May 22 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. He fishes on a small boat, background, that survived the tsunami during the Great East Japan Earthquake. Abe hopes he can resume fixed-net fishing by autumn, the salmon fishing season. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi -- The outbreak of the new coronavirus has dealt yet another blow to areas affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Kikuo Abe, 71, a resident of the Tsukinoura district of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, decided in mid-April to suspend fixed-net fishing for a while, through which he had caught hiramasa yellowtail amberjacks and suzuki sea bass, among other species.

Tsukinoura is home to a small port where about 10 fishing boats are moored. In the neighborhood, reconstruction work continues, such as the raising of the embankment.

Many long-liners for catching tuna are among the boats moored in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, on May 16 due to difficulties in securing crew members amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

"As I can't get a decent price for my fish, it's not matching my efforts," Abe said.

He has since switched to shako squilla fishing using a smaller boat.

Market prices for seafood dropped sharply because of stay-at-home and business closure requests during the nationwide state of emergency, which was lifted entirely late last month. This has cast a shadow over the fishing industry, which is a key economic driver for the Sanriku coastal area.

Fishermen return to Ishinomaki after harvesting farmed coho salmon from aquaculture tanks on May 21. "If the prices remain unchanged, we'll see a negative impact next year as well," one of the fishermen said. "I just cross my fingers every day, hoping for prices to increase." (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

At Ishinomaki Port, which was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, catches had increased to their levels before the disaster. However, catches in April decreased by 24 percent from a year earlier, according to fish market officials.

Prices also fell for farmed coho salmon, which usually underpins market transactions at this time of year.

"Since the disaster, we've overcome difficulties and had finally gotten on a recovery track," lamented an official in the fish farming business.

An auction is underway at the Ishinomaki fish market on May 11. "The market is somewhat lacking energy," an official lamented. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

Giving up on this season, some fishermen brought half the fish in their aquaculture tanks to the market before they got bigger to save on feed expenses and minimize the economic damage.

"Unless demand recovers in the Tokyo metropolitan area, prices will remain sluggish," said Shigeki Sasaki, 61, president of the Ishinomaki fish market. "All the businesses are shoestring operations, and if this situation is prolonged, the economy of our entire region could sink."

Seafood refrigeration and processing companies are now facing stocks of frozen products that have nowhere to go. The Kesennuma fishing port in northern Miyagi Prefecture is crowded with long-liners for catching tuna and other boats that can't go out to sea due to the difficulty of securing Indonesian crew members.

Hiroshi Uotani holds a cooking lesson using a videoconferencing system on May 2 at his restaurant in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, while it was temporarily closed. Uotani, 40, held the lesson as a member of Fisherman Japan in Ishinomaki, which also sells fresh fish from the disaster-hit areas via e-commerce. "Even though we're in such a difficult situation, I hope more people will learn about the fish they eat and who caught it," said Uotani, who worked as a volunteer in Tohoku following the earthquake. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

The fishery industry supports a wide range of sectors and is linked to many people's livelihoods. Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, but new concerns are growing in the disaster-affected areas, even though people have made continuous efforts toward reconstruction.

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