Support for Ajishima Island's Fishery: Help Islanders in Efforts to Recover from Disaster

JEN assisted fishermen at the Amijima branch of the Miyagi Prefecture Fishery Cooperative in accommodating fishing gears to restart their fishing operations on November 18.

【Amijishima Island is about one hour by ferryboat from Ishinomaki jetty with some 400 people on the isolated island.】

A map of the island: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/embed?mid=zIt-ICU1-ifU.kOQhIWQJmkLs




【Roofs of the settlement in Amijishima Island: beyond the roofs the Oshika peninsula lies over the sea.】


Amijishima was closest to the earthquake epicenter and so it was hit by the tsunami earlier than any other area.

Fortunately, there were no casualties thanks to the islanders' appropriately decision to evacuate quickly, but houses, fishing-related facilities and fishing ports were heavily damaged.
In this assistance of JEN's, fishing materials such as a forklift truck that would be shared with fishermen, octopus trap baskets, fishing nets were provided for the branch of the Miyagi Prefecture Fishery Cooperative.

【The ship carrying the forklift truck pulled in at the quay under restoration work!】


Ajishima Island has two fishing ports, Aji and Futawatashi, but their needed assistance is different because of differences in the damage by the disaster.
Aji port has its dock-mounted crane along with its quay swept away. In addition, the completion of the port restoration work is expected to be year after next at the earliest, and so islanders have been put in the situation where they are not able to ship and unship heavy burdens. Therefore they hoped to have a forklift truck accommodated so that they may substitute it for crane.

On the other hand, Futawatashi port is in need of "supplies of fishing materials washed away by the tsunami", and so JEN assisted in equipping octopus trap baskets and komame fishing nets (fine-mesh fishing nets). The fishermen there can capture flatfish, rockfish, and rock trout with the komame fishing nets all year-round.

The restoration rate of Amijishma Island's fishery is only about 20 percent (as of August 2013) with little room to feel optimistic about the situation, yet you can't see any signs of resignation on the fishermen's faces. One of the fishermen said firmly to JEN "Aging fishermen have given up fishing and the number of cooperative members has fallen; But, we take advantage of this assistance to work hard together with our members."

【Together with cooperative members】

◆A regular liner service to Amijishima Island is operated three or four services per a day.
Pensions and minshuku (private home that provides room and board) are also in operation. Please come to Amijishima Island at least once where warm persons live in abundant nature. For directions, refer here (external website: Amijishima Island liner）

◆JEN continues recruiting volunteers to assist earthquake disaster reconstruction. The planned volunteer activities for September-December period have been renewed. For details, click here.
If you consider joining volunteer work in a group, please contact us.

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