Wednesday 1/9/2004
長月に入ったとたん学生から、同僚から、事務室から、メールや電話が相次ぐ。「目を覚ませ」と言われているようだ。台風一過、再び暑い。本日の更新は表紙の写真とこの「更新・短信」ページの刷新です。いずれも気仙沼港。戻りカツオとサンマ漁に湧く活気ある港だった。しかし、漁船の乗組員には（日本船籍でも）外国人が増えているとのことで、十年後の日本の漁業は危ういという声を聞いた。遠洋漁業には船員が成田からニューヨーク経由でアフリカに飛び、そこに係留してある日本の船に乗り込むとか。船の整備も経費の安い外国で行うそうだ。写真を撮った日はたまたま台風を避けて普段の五倍もの船が入港していた。地元東北のみならず、北海道・関東・四国・九州など全国の地名を船体に読んで歩いた。港の賑わいに比べると、数キロ離れた鉄道駅周辺は寂れてひっそり閑としていた。そういえばカナダのニューファンドランド島の港には日本向けの魚加工場があったのを思い出す。食糧問題はグローバルだ。
As soon as September started, I began receiving e-mails and phone calls from students, colleagues, and the office; it's as if people are saying, "Wake up!"
After the typhoon, it's extremely hot and humid again. Today's update: the photo of the top page and the renewal of this page, "Latest Notes." Both of the photos were taken in Kesennuma. The port was lively with the fishing boats of returning skipjacks and sanma. However, a taxi driver told us that sailors of Japanese fisihing boats include more and more of people from overseas. He was very pessimistic about the Japanese fishing industry of 10 years from now. For deep-sea fishing, I heard that sailors fly from Narita via New York to ports of Afican countries for example. Their boats are kept there for cheaper maintenance costs. On the day when I took the photos, there were five times as many ships as usual visiting Kesennuma escaping from a typhoon. I could read the names of their home town on the body of ships: they were not only from Tohoku District, but also Hokkaido, Kanto, Shikoku, and Kyushu, all over Japan. Compared to the bustle in the port, the railway station was so quiet and almost desolate. I remember I saw fish factories in ports of the Newfoundland in Canada. Food production issue is global.
