Seaweed Day in Japan was a bummer yesterday for environmentalists and fishers. They are in a tizzy over a project to reclaim land on what was the country’s largest tidal wetland on Isahaya Bay in the Ariake Sea. The government closed flood-control dikes and ramped up its project to convert the wetland to solid ground in 1997. Enviros and fishers say the dikes have stopped the natural ebb and flow of the tide that was essential to the health of the Ariake Sea and seaweed production. Late last month, 6,000 angry fishers formed a flotilla of more than 1,000 boats in the bay to demand that the floodgates be opened.
