Underwater Clean Up by Volunteer Divers in the
Tsunami-Ravaged Iwate Prefecture of Northeastern
Japan
This is a report of the relief activities from former Big Blue Diving Instructor and photographer Tetsuya Kusu, with English translation by Chisa Hidaka of Dolphin Dance Project. We hope to raise awareness and support for the disaster relief efforts in this region.
A once-in-a-thousand-year earthquake hits Japan’s northeast Tohoku region...the massive tsunami that accompanied it swallowed into the sea thousands of lives and memories. In the aftermath of this unprecedented disaster, the survivors are moving forward towards recovery, one step at a time. In the face of a natural event born of our oceans, divers have rushed in to support the relief efforts.
Immediately, they thought "What can we do as divers?" With the cooperation of the local fishermen the divers have begun a full-scale underwater clean up.
The Once Beautiful Coast of Sanriku, Transformed
I first visited Iwate prefecture four years ago, in the rainy season. Despite having traveled widely abroad, I had not seen much of Japan outside the familiar Kansai region where I live. This was the first time I visited the northeast Tohoku region of Japan. Although a part of Honshu Island (the main island of Japan), Iwate prefecture is about 500 km from Tokyo and 1000 km north of the Kansai region.
Even in the rainy season (June) there was still a spring-like air. The water temperature had warmed up to 15 degrees Celsius...but that was still quite chilly for a tropical-water diver like me.
Diving in the waters of Ryori harbor near Sanriku village seemed, at first, unspectacular. But then, as I looked a little more carefully, I spied a huge fringed blenny with shiny eyes. I watched a school of Japanese bitterling shimmer as they danced in the light. I fell in love with the ocean of Iwate.
Visits to Iwate became a yearly event, and I soon befriended Hiroshi Sato, aka “Kuma,” owner of the local dive shop “Michinoku Diving (Rias)”. He guided me through the deep riches of Iwate's nature and sumptuous food from the mountains and ocean Being a life long city-dweller I cherished these visits for the precious opportunity they offered to discover the natural wonders of rural Japan.
He even introduced me to something I had wanted to do for quite awhile...the “Salmon Swim”. As the name suggest, in the “Salmon Swim” we swim with the salmon. Wearing a mask and snorkel, we entered the mouth of the river to observe the salmon return and run upstream after 4 year’s migration through the open ocean. In Japan, most of the salmon and their runs are controlled and managed by Fishery Unions. Fishing by individuals is, of course, forbidden, and entering the water with the salmon would normally attract immediate police attention.
But Kuma had patiently negotiated our visits with the local fishermen. Through a bit of trial and error, he had found a way to approach the salmon so that divers could come to witness the mysterious salmon run - the salmon sacrificing of their lives to lay their eggs - while making as little impact on the behavior and environment as possible. The “Salmon Swim” was one of the highlights of visiting this area.
But now, these once-beautiful oceans and rivers.... Three weeks after the earthquake and tsunami, as the roads started to become passable, I travelled to Iwate to document and report on the recovery efforts.
Local Diver Kuma’s Relief Activities
March 11, 2011 will forever be a memorable day, not just for divers, but for people around the world. Having received Nature’s blessings, we also experienced her immense destructive power.
March is off-season for diving in Iwate; so Kuma was working as a dive guide for Big Blue Diving in Kao Lak, Thailand. As soon as he heard the news of the earthquake and tsunami, he rushed back to his family and “home field” of diving. In the confusion and destruction following the disaster, roads were practically unpassable; but on March 15 he finally arrived. Having confirmed that his family was safe, he proceeded directly to the areas hardest hit by the disaster.
What he saw there...it was the utter destruction about which we are now all too well aware. Everything had washed away. With so many people without any protection, even from their own fears, it was not a moment for Kuma to think about helping...he simply stepped in and started working. Making his way through the scattered debris, he spent days distributing the donated goods that had arrived from Bangkok and Akita. Soon, support from his fellow divers began to flow in. They rallied to raise funds for Kuma’s relief efforts. A divers network began to form as transportation improved and more donated goods began to arrive.
The numbers of supporters increased as friends, relatives and colleagues joined the effort. Public donations arrived but were delivered slowly. Even goods received the local government were accumulating elsewhere, awaiting distribution. Limited as they were, Kuma’s network was able to reach the neediest victims directly...and their efforts were rewarded by increasing support from around the country and the world.
It all began as a personal effort; but Kuma has reached the hearts of many and his relief efforts are expanding into a full-scale movement.
SCUBA-Assisted Relief Efforts
Being divers, Kuma and the others were concerned from the beginning, not only about the destruction that had been wrecked on land, but the huge amount of debris that had been dragged into the ocean. Wreckage was strewn all over the oceans they once dived and enjoyed. Rubble littered the rivers where the salmon ran upstream. But the waters were dangerous and not immediately accessible, especially not on their own. Besides, the needs of the people who had suffered damages and loss were more urgent priorities.
Then, about one month into the efforts, on April 8, Mr. Koichi Ryori, a fisherman and relative of Kuma living in Ofunato city, Sanriku village, suggested that they might try pulling some of the debris out of the water.
Many fishermen had lost their boats, which had been anchored in the harbor. Now with all the sunken rubble, even those who still had boats could barely make their way about. There was much wreckage to pull out of the water; and perhaps some of the sunken fishing gear could be salvaged. So Kuma and his crew literally dove in. With divers and fishermen working together, an underwater clean up effort was begun.
First the biggest pieces, visible from the surface, were pulled out using land-based cranes. With Kuma in the water, and the fishermen on land, the team tied ropes around sunken objects to pull them out of the water. A light truck was pulled out. A pot for boiling freshly collected seaweed was retrieved.
Cheers rose from the fishermen as, one after another, pieces of fishing gear were recovered, relatively intact. The more valuable the item, the greater were the cheers. Things that could not be pulled out using a land-based crane were marked with buoys for recovery using ship-board cranes. They also repaired the buoys marking the mooring lines for large ships in the bay.
At times divers were called upon to perform risky maneuvers, like cutting free debris that was caught in the ropes. Sometimes they had to cut away ropes that were too tangled. After all the large pieces had been retrieved, divers picked up the smaller ones hand. An iron griddle, some building materials...these items were handed them one by one to fishermen eagerly waiting on small boats or even on shore.
Kuma and the divers have already received tremendous appreciation from the fishermen and their community for the recovery and relief efforts; but much more work and much more man power is still needed. The work is dangerous, and can only be accomplished by experienced divers. Even so, a flood of inquiries followed his recent call for volunteers. Once transportation and gasoline supply became available people from outside the prefecture arrived to contribute their time and effort.
With the arrival of Golden Week (a week in early May when many Japanese people take vacation) an effort involving many more volunteers became possible. Twenty five volunteers arrived to Iwate from Kanto, Nagano, Nagoya and even as far away as Hiroshima. Eleven of them used SCUBA to help with the clean up efforts. There were two underwater clean up teams, and everyone on land also helped out, each person assigned to the tasks for which they were most suited.
Fishery Union Report: The Oceans of Sanriku Are Alive!
In the middle of Golden Week a request came from the Fishery Union for help with an evaluation of the state of the local fisheries. Unable to fish since the tsunami, the fishermen were understandably anxious about the state of the fisheries. Their houses, boats and fishing gear all washed away, the fishermen wondered whether, even when fishing once again became feasible, there would be anything left to catch.
The Ryori fishing harbor once yielded regular harvests of many different kinds of seafood. But the farming structures for wakame seaweed, scallops and sea squirt were badly damaged. Many were concerned that the abalone that naturally grew on the seaside ledges may have been destroyed under the rubble. With so much of the shore having been washed into the bay, no one could imaging how the underwater seascape have changed. Amid much anxious speculation, the divers were asked to investigate the underwater state of the fishery.
Carrying with them the worries of the fishermen, the divers entered water in which they are usually forbidden to dive. At 5-10 meters, some rubble was visible; but what really impressed us was the lush growth of wakame and other seaweed, swaying in the waves. Healthy sea urchin and sea squirts abounded. Many live abalone appeared to thrive amid the wealth of seaweed on which they feed. From the depths of Sanriku’s ocean, considered one of the world’s three largest fisheries, the divers excitedly brought back photos and video depicting underwater scenes of unexpected abundance.
Obviously relieved, the fishermen seemed that they were finally able to feel a glimmer of hope for the future of their livelihoods. Similar underwater fishery research was conducted in three locations during Golden Week. The video must now undergo official analysis by the Fishery Union to assess future prospects for continued aquaculture and other fishing activities.
Clean Up and Shelter
Golden Week involved much more than underwater clean up and fishery surveys. We cleaned the mouth of the salmon river and the sea cucumber farms in the fishing harbor, ran a soup kitchen near the harbor, delivered donated goods to the emergency shelters and held a tea ceremony there, too.
We responded not only to the explicit needs of the fishermen and other community members, but offered our own ideas like the soup kitchen and tea ceremony. It was satisfying to feel that we could offer not only some assistance, but a chance for a little peace to ease the fears of those who had suffered so much from the disaster. We relaxed and drank tea, enjoying our new friendship. Tears even flowed as we neared “good bye.”
Many volunteers expressed their desire to return for a second round. Just offering an empathetic ear seemed to lessen the anxieties of the people who have suffered so much loss and devastation. With time and as relief progresses, the needs of the community will no doubt change. Our plan is for future activities that respond to those changing needs.
Moving the Volunteer Base to Yokota in Rikuzentakata
The house where Kuma's grand mother in law used to live - now owned by Kuma is in Yokota in Rikuzentakata; and it was turned into the volunteers’ home base—a warm inviting place where we stayed, feeling as if we were family friends. The house is very conveniently located, in close proximity to the disaster area. It is only about 10 km from the Kesengawa River, a point to which the tsunami had risen.
Even with up to 20 of us there during Golden Week, the house allowed us all to stay in comfort without the need to camp in tents or be otherwise inconvenienced. The friendly company and relaxing accommodations very much made us all enthusiastic about returning. Near the house there is a center where they can assign volunteers to different activities so they can also introduce the volunteers to the center.
At the moment the house is most useful as a base for relief volunteers; but in the future it will no doubt be loved as a wonderful place for divers visiting Sanriku, or tourists to Iwate to stay for rest and relaxation.
Thanks to the efforts of the Sanriku volunteer divers described in this report, underwater clean up has proceeded much more quickly here than in other tsunami-affected areas. Building on our experience in Sanriku we hope to expand our efforts to other devastated areas in the north east Tohoku area of Japan, with cooperation from local Fishery Unions and the local governments.
Unfortunately, unlike the fishermen who are receiving disaster compensation from the national government, the divers are receiving nothing, yet continue these efforts through support from private donors and by simply volunteering their own time and resources. In order for us to continue and expand our efforts, additional donor funding is now critical.
In Minami-Sanriku village in Miyagi prefecture, several local divers who suffered from the effects of the tsunami and earthquake are working towards recovering their futures by soliciting funds to build a new air station (to fill SCUBA tanks). Little by little, the divers there are struggling to reclaim their livelihoods.
To support the relief efforts, through which we are working to restore the beauty of the oceans of the north east Tohoku area of Japan, we appeal to divers, not only in Japan, but around the world.
We would be very grateful to receive support from fellow divers everywhere who also love the ocean.
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