An advisory panel to the agriculture minister on Tuesday took action that will delay by at least one year any reopening of a large part of Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture to the Ariake Sea.
A dike built as part of a major reclamation project is being blamed by nori farmers in the area for destroying the quality of their crop. On March 27, Agriculture Minister Yoshio Yatsu said the ministry would open the dike's eight gates to see whether doing so would return the ecosystem and the nori to their previous states.
But on Tuesday the National Research Institute of Fisheries Engineering, based in Ibaraki Prefecture, filed a second report on the matter that suggests the government further examine the causes of the damaged nori crop while keeping the gates closed.