PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT
Thousands of miles from the shores of Japan across the Pacific Ocean, Chilean shellfish farmers are facing an uncertain future after a giant wave traveled the seas and washed away their scallop beds.
'I don't know I can carry on. Too much has been lost. I had all the scallops I could wish for, and now, look," said fisherman Patricio, shaking his head in despair.
Tongoy, some 450 kilometers (290 miles) north of the capital Santiago, stands on part of the scenic Chilean coast which was put on alert on March 11 after a catastrophic earthquake in Japan triggered a massive tsunami.
The huge wave devastated entire towns in northeast Japan, in chile, the alert was lifted after just 24 hours, Only a few relatively weak waves had come ashore and authorities confidently proclaimed that there had been no victims and no damage.
But despite its 17,000-kilometer (10,500-mile) journey from Japan, the strength of the wave remained very real here, packing enough force to toss aside blocks of concrete weighing nearly a tonne.
It was under these blocks that the Tongoy fishermen hung their nets holding the scallops in their fan-shaped shells until the shellfish reach maturity, a lengthy, time-consuming two-year process.
"Never did I imagin that this would cause so much damage," said Tongoy shellfish farmer Eduardo Briones.
"But it was an underwater current that tumbled" everything, leaving it all upside down," he added, describing the tangled nets and shellish which had been ready to harvest, now sitting at the bottom of the bay.
Local authorities have not yet estimated the value of the loss of the Tongoy shellfish, but the local press has put the figure at $6 millon, and fishermen say between 50 and 100 percent of total production was destroyed.
BY - from newspaper
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