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Japan to transplant coral to disputed Pacific islets

Coral is grown in the Japanese Fisheries Agency`s preserve on Aka island, near Okinawa, in February. PHOTO: AP

Japan is mounting a US$7 million coral transplanting operation in the Pacific Ocean aimed at bolstering its side of a territorial dispute with China — and cementing Tokyo’s right to exploit a wide expanse of ocean.

Over the next year, scientists plan to plant more than 50,000 fast-growing Acropora coral fragments on Okinotorishima, two uninhabited rocky outcroppings about 1,700km southwest of Tokyo, project officials said.

The aim is to protect the islets — now circled by concrete seawalls — from further erosion and maintain Japan’s claim that they are bona fide islands that can be used to map its exclusive economic zone in the Pacific.

In a sometimes heated dispute, China has challenged Japan’s claim, arguing that the outcroppings are too small to be defined as islands under international law, meaning the waters around them are open to use by other nations.

PRESERVATION

“We hope the corals will grow larger and eventually preserve the islets and their environment,” said Mayumi Tamura, of the Fisheries Agency. “We see corals as an important marine resource, not as a mere tool of territorial claims.”

The project began in 2006, when officials took 37 coral colonies from the outcroppings and brought them to the agency’s preserve on Aka island, near Okinawa, for breeding.

Since then, scientists have grown about 50,000 coral fragments, each about the size of a fingertip. Officials brought about a dozen of them to the islets last year as an experiment, and will bring another 40,000 on a three-week trip starting on April 22.

Tamura said the agency plans to take 10,000 already spawned fragments with tens of thousands more still to be bred in another trip planned for next January. The agency has a budget of ¥770 million (US$7.55 million) for the three-year project.

Koji Watanabe, a chief researcher at a government-funded Fisheries Infrastructure Development Center, said the small scale relocation and transplant of corals has been conducted in Japan, but that this would be the first involving so many fragments.

FISHING GROUNDS

“If we can achieve a mass relocation, that would be a major step forward for coral repairs in vast areas.” Watanabe said. “Coral plays a crucial role in the marine environment, and their loss could seriously damage fishing grounds.”

The fisheries agency has earmarked ¥227 million budget for the project for the fiscal year that began on April 1.

It isn’t the first time Japan has pressed its claim on the islets.

Japan has fortified the islets with cement embankments against the encroaching waves, and uses them to delineate its economic zone so it can lay exclusive claim to the natural resources 370km from its shores into the Pacific.

Japan has built a lighthouse just off the islets. Tokyo’s nationalist Governor Shintaro Ishihara, whose city has jurisdiction over the outcroppings, made a widely publicized visit there in 2005 to post a large metal address plaque on one of the rocks.

Ishihara has also announced plans to conduct bonito fishing and scientific research in the area.

The corals, which require no additional structures, are peaceful and environmental, Tamura said.

“So far, we haven’t heard any complaints [from China],” she said.
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