By Richard Lloyd Parry
Independent News
Not
many countries celebrate National Seaweed Day, but then, there aren't many that
honour and esteem the marine vegetable in so heartfelt a way as Japan.
Seaweed
Day was on Tuesday, marking the date, in the year 710, that edible seaweed first
appeared on a list of treasured produce offered in tribute to the Emperor. Thirteen
centuries later, few Japanese go a day without eating it in some form Ð floating
in miso soup at breakfast, chopped into strands as a garnish for lunchtime noodles,
and, above all, as the dried and crinkly wrapping for sushi rolls.
On
Seaweed Day, retailers give away free samples and the papers print photographs
of grinning children chomping sheets of nori, as the dried and edible product
is called in Japanese. But this year, angry demonstrations have taken place, questions
are to be asked in parliament and government officials are reacting with defiance
and confusion. For the nori industry is in crisis, and never has Seaweed Day been
marked in such an atmosphere of trepidation and crisis.
The problem is
in the Ariake Sea, a shallow bay created by the elaborate, convoluted coastline
of Kyushu, where two-fifths of all Japanese nori is produced. Ariake nori is the
best in the world, with the finest taste and the richest colour, a deep matt black-green.
But this winter, the seaweed harvesters of Ariake Bay made an alarming find.
The
nori they raised from the bottom was beige, instead of green, virtually tasteless
and extremely sparse. Nationally, this year's seaweed harvest has dropped by 25
per cent or 1.2 billion sheets (it is bought and sold in paper-thin dried rectangles
of 21cm by 19cm).
The crisis in the Ariake Sea accounts for 90 per cent
of the shortfall. And there isn't much mystery about the cause of the seaweed
failure Ð something like this has been predicted by environmentalists for years.
In the west of the Ariake Sea is Isahaya Bay, the site of one of the most
controversial of Japan's many public works projects. Four years ago, 300 steel
gates were lowered across the mouth of the bay as part of a project to reclaim
it for farmland. The seaweed cultivators are sure responsibility for their own
ruin lies with the reclamation and the bureaucrats from the Ministry of Agriculture.
A flotilla of 6,000 seaweed farmers in 1,000 boats rallied in protest
last month. "Open the dikes!" they shouted and, less catchily, "Conduct an environment
assessment survey!" Nobody knows exactly what is ravaging the nori, but theories
include malnutrition due to a sudden and stifling excess of plankton, a phenomenon
known as "red tide".
The ministry insists there is no scientific evidence
of a link between the nori devastation and its land reclamation project. This
is true Ð they have not allowed any scientific research.
The prices in
the seaweed auctions, meanwhile, are creeping up, from 6 yen (3.6p) to nearly
10 yen a sheet in parts of Japan. It won't be long until they are passed on to
the consumers. As for the long term, nobody knows, but the time may yet come when
National Seaweed Day is marked by sad and distant memories. |
