Bottom Trawling Restarts in Ishikawa Pref. Post Quake; Fishers Still Short on Fuel, Ice

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:48 JST, March 25, 2024

SUZU, Ishikawa — Fishers in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, went bottom trawling on Sunday for the first time since the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, landing catches of about 1.5 tons that included horsehair crabs and akagarei flatfish.

Nine fishing boats departed from Takojima Fishing Port on Saturday night and carried out their trawling about 20 kilometers off the coast. When they returned to the port around 10 a.m. on Sunday, the fishers crammed crabs and fish into Styrofoam boxes, which were then unloaded one after another from the ships.

“Mud was building up on the sea bottom, but we were finally able to go fishing again,” said fisherman Masaru Takichi, 65, smiling.

Due to the quake, there is no stable fuel supply for fishing boats. One of the two ice making machines at the port has also been out of order, and there is no running water. The catches had to be shipped to a market using ice brought from Kanazawa.

At the port, fixed-net fishing resumed in late January. The fishers plan to continue their bottom trawling, aiming for a full restart to fishing.