Restoration Process of Blue Infrastructures Supporting Coastal Fisheries along the Sanriku Coast after the Huge Tsunami

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  • 三陸の沿岸漁業を支えるブルーインフラの大津波後の復興過程＊
  • サンリク ノ エンガン ギョギョウ オ ササエル ブルーインフラ ノ オオツハ ゴ ノ フッコウ カテイ

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Abstract

The Great East Japan Earthquake damaged the Sanriku Coast facing the Pacific Ocean in Tohoku, Japan on March 11, 2011.The tsunami destroyed not only societal infrastructures of coastal fisheries, such as ports, fish markets, aquaculture rafts, and fishing boats, but also natural infrastructures such as seagrass and seaweed beds. We define natural infrastructures forming a coastal ecotone as the blue infrastructure. After the tsunami, we studied the damage and recovering processes of seagrass and seaweed beds in Otsuchi Bay and Shizugawa Bay along the Sanriku Coast. Seaweed beds growing on the rocky coast around the mouth and center of the bays were not severely damaged by the tsunami. However, the sea urchin population has markedly increased and devastated seaweed forests since2014. Their removal is needed for the restoration of seaweed beds. On the other hand, seagrass（Zostera spp.）meadows on the sandy/muddy bottom near river mouths and bay heads where wave heights of the tsunami became greater were severely damaged. The seeds that had been produced before the tsunami germinated and developed into seedlings in June 2011. They have already started the recovery process. Some seagrass meadows around the mouth and center of the bay were geomorphologically protected from the tsunami and survived. It is important to conserve them as a source of natural self-restoration in preparation of the next big tsunami hitting the coast. Although the tsunami and subsidence

Journal

  • Bulletin on Coastal Oceanography

    Bulletin on Coastal Oceanography 54 (2), 117-127, 2017

    Coastal Oceanography Research Committee, the Oceanographic Society of Japan

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