Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki is seen observing pumice stones washed up on the beach at Yagaji Island in the city of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Oct. 26, 2021. (Mainichi/Nozomu Takeuchi) =Click/tap photo for more images.

       NAHA -- Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa established a task force on Oct. 26 to respond to a huge amount of pumice stones released by the August eruption of a submarine volcano over 1,000 kilometers away.

       The stones were produced by the eruption in August of submarine volcano Fukutoku-Okanoba in the Ogasawara Islands. The prefectural government began removing them on Oct. 29 after reports of damage, including the mass death of fish cultivated at a fishing port in the north of Okinawa's main island, which prompted fishermen to refrain from fishing.

       Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki went to see the situation at the city of Nago's coast on Oct. 26, and said, "I'm very concerned the damage could spread widely. We must cooperate with the national government and take immediate action."

       The large amount of pumice stones released in the eruption, thought to be one of the biggest since World War II, drifted about 1,000 kilometers west to the prefectural island of Kitadaito in early October. Since mid-October, pumice stones have washed ashore on the main island of Okinawa more than 1,300 km from the volcano, and on the coast of the Amami Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture.

       At the village of Kunigami's Hentona fishing port in the north of Okinawa's main island, the sea surface was covered in pumice stones. The Kunigami fisheries cooperative said about 150 Indian mackerels kept in a cage swallowed the stones and died, while the remaining roughly 150 fish are in no state to be shipped, inflicting losses of around 450,000 yen ($3,960) on the fishing port.

       A fisheries cooperative official said, "Even if we remove them, new stones immediately flow in. It will take forever."

       According to the Okinawa prefectural federation of Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, 19 local fisheries cooperatives on the main island of Okinawa and surrounding islands confirmed pumice stones had washed ashore. Many fishermen are apparently refraining from fishing with boats because the pumice stones are drifting in streaks off the coast, and they are afraid of their engines breaking down due to the stones.

       A representative expressed concern that the pumice stones will "impact cultivation of mozuku seaweed and diamond squid fishing."

       (Japanese original by Takayasu Endo and Nozomu Takeuchi, Naha Bureau)

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