Photo/Illutration Akio Manaki, standing, the lead lawyer for fishermen involved in a legal battle over the Isahaya Bay land reclamation project, speaks at a March 25 news conference. (Soichiro Yamamoto)

Fishermen who reminisce about the Sea of Ariake’s once bountiful harvest were incensed by a March 25 ruling by the Fukuoka High Court that effectively said floodgates installed at the Isahaya Bay land reclamation project in Nagasaki Prefecture did not have to be opened, thereby dashing their hopes of making a decent living.

The fishermen and their lawyers were especially aggrieved, given the protracted battle to date, by the reasoning in the ruling that said catches in the Sea of Ariake began increasing from around 2013.

A 2010 ruling by the Fukuoka High Court ordered the floodgates opened, citing the negative impact on marine life in the Sea of Ariake. That ruling was eventually finalized, but the March 25 ruling effectively said the order to open the floodgates did not have to be followed.

Akio Manaki, the lead lawyer for the fishermen, met with reporters after the latest ruling and said: “It was a very surprising verdict. What does a finalized ruling mean (when it can be reversed)? Society will no longer function if this attitude of the central government can be allowed.”

The fishermen made immediate plans to appeal the ruling and take the case to the Supreme Court.

Manaki expressed confidence that the high court ruling could be overturned.

“All the reasoning laid out in the ruling was based on a wrong interpretation of the facts,” he said. “There is no way the Supreme Court can stand by such a ruling.”

Nobukiyo Hirakata, 69, of Tara, Saga Prefecture, used to harvest bivalve pen shellfish in the sea. But a study last autumn found that none of the shellfish had matured to a size suitable for harvesting. It was the 10th straight year fishing had to be canceled.

“If the catch was actually increasing, we would not be putting up a legal fight,” Hirakata said. “Does this mean that people who feel wronged have no choice but to succumb to the pressure of the central government?”

Pen shells were harvested by divers like Hirakata. But now the seabed is pitch black he said.

“There is no way marine life can exist in such an environment,” Hirakata said. He suggested the judges come to the sea and dive themselves to assess the situation.

Retired fishermen and others were equally angered and vowed to never give up the fight.

Lawyers argued that the Fukuoka High Court cherry-picked the data simply to claim, wrongly they contend, that catches in the Sea of Ariake were increasing.

Farmers who are cultivating reclaimed land in Isahaya Bay expressed relief at the latest ruling, however.

Kazuyuki Araki, 45, has been raising cabbage there for the past decade or so. And while his business appeared to be moving on a stable path, the novel coronavirus pandemic dealt a severe blow as many restaurants that he sold produce to were forced to temporarily shut down operations.

Farmers have long claimed that opening the floodgates would raise salinity levels and render their land useless to growing vegetables and crops.

Araki said he was worn out by the years spent waging legal action.

Even the Fukuoka High Court said that too much time had passed.

In a rare appendage to the ruling, the high court stated that court decisions would not lead to an immediate resolution of various social issues connected with the case and urged all parties to join in discussions for the resuscitation and further development of the area around the Sea of Ariake.

One fact that cannot be overlooked is that the dikes in Isahaya Bay were closed 25 years ago and around 250 billion yen ($2 billion) has been spent on the project to date.

The high court also pointed to another objective of the project, flood prevention, and said the public value of the project had increased since its completion

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