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After the tsunami hit Japan earlier this year, one thing that caught everyone’s attention was the tsunami hit nuclear plant in the country. But one more thing that should’ve been a hot topic of discussion but was not was the seafood industry. What once were the seafaring towns, fishing towns is now nothing else but towns of tranquillity. One such town is Kesennuma. The town’s life sustaining businesses of fish quays, processing and packaging plants are now abandoned and eerie harbours.

The town had reopened in the month of June but the output prior to the Tsunami incident has not yet been reached. The vast holding sheds on the quayside are deserted most of the time now. One of the local managers of the large fishing fleet company, Etsuko Sato told that because the large processing plants for the seafood which bought the fish have been destroyed, it can not be expected to have the same amount of fish landing in the docks. Therefore the first and the foremost priority they have is to rebuild those processing plants.

This town became the hot topic when images showing four hundred tonne fishing vessels randomly strewn on the harbour, abandoned. The vessels were left among the obliterated houses and shops for three whole months and finally when they were removed from the streets and placed back into the harbour, it became a multi-million dollar ordeal which was financed by a network of insurance companies and the fishing co-operatives of the place. But the problems didn’t end at this point. The whole of the Tuna fleet which was washed on the streets by the raging tsunami waves had suffered so much damage due to violent impacts to the ground that they had to spend many months repairing and refitting the parts.

At this stage the whole matter becomes a little delicate because prior to the tsunami event, the whole town and its fishing sheds were being heavily criticized by the environmentalists at the international level. This is because Kesennuma was the centre of Japan’s shark industry and the secret videos shot at various times showed that the methods employed were not at all sustainable. But hope says that this can be fresh start for the town as in the town hall there is a notice in the lobby which speaks of nurturing the fishery along with the ocean instead of looting it of its treasures.