Japanese Fishermen Fear Radiation in the Sea

Much of this fishing port in Takahagi was washed away by huge tsunami waves on March 11th. And now fishermen, who evacuated the area, are just getting around to untangling nets and cleaning up the wreckage.

But as they try to clean up the port so the surviving boats can go out to sea again, a new problem is weighing on their minds.

Further north up the coast, engineers are battling to contain the disaster at a nuclear power plant damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami.

[Toshiichi Tayama, Fisherman]:
„As for resuming fishing, radiation is something that is harmful to human beings, so we have to be careful. When we go fishing again, we have to be careful.”

Radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi plant has been found in vegetables produced in four prefectures surrounding the Fukushima plant; in tap water in areas around the plant, and also in the sea.

Many boats moored at the Takahagi port in Ibaraki Prefecture have sunk. Many others were thrown onto what is now dry land. Mounds of tangled fishing nets and buoys lie scattered everywhere.

It could take months for the port to be ready and boats repaired at Takahagi, and the fishermen hope the nuclear crisis will have been contained by then.

Foto: NTD