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The wreckage of a 379-metric-ton tuna boat blocks the road to the deserted fish market in Kesennuma, once Japan’s largest port for bonito and swordfish. More vessels litter the surrounding area, awaiting local cleanup efforts. Eventually the debris from last month’s tsunami will be cleared away, but the industry may never recover. “Thirty years ago we used to think Japan was the No. 1 fishing country in the world, with the best catching and processing methods, but that’s really no longer the case,” says Ryosuke Sato, chairman of the Kesennuma Fisheries Cooperative Assn. “We’ve been in terminal decline.”

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