Characteristics of Minamata Bay in Kumamoto, Japan - Research Paper Example

?Minamata Bay in Kumamoto Japan • General physical Minamata Bay, as the implies is a bay, situated in Kumanoto Pretecture; on the western coast of Kyushu Island in Japan. The Free Dictionary explains that a bay is “a body of water partially enclosed by land but with a wide mouth, affording access to the sea.” Minamata Bay is a very population location and its name is known the world over. However, the popularity has very little to do with the geographical and natural state of the place as a bay. Minamata Bay is rather popular because of the infamous outbreak of disease that hit the area in the 1950s and 1960s when the bay was largely polluted by wastewater mixed with mercury. The pollution was suspected to have been caused because Hyakken Habour released the poisonous mercury from the Chisso Corporation. This not withstanding, Minamata Bay has its own unique geographical and natural make-up, that makes the bay distinguished. Minamata Bay is part of the bigger Shiranui Sea but it is locked up in the middle of the Kyushu coast and the Island of Kumamoto and Nagasaki prefectures. From afar, the bay presents beautiful scenery of nature’s popular sea color, which is sea blue. The bay is generally calm with no heavy tides that randomly break its banks. The bay is shallow, yet possesses every thing that a regular sea area should possess. To the north of the bay is the Ariake Sea and to its south is the East China Sea. This means that Minamata Bays share a lot of common features with the East China Sea and the Ariake Sea. • Climate Precipitation and temperature in the Minamata Bay varies significantly during different times of the year. However comparatively, because of the presence of the sea, precipitation in Minamata Bay is generally low when compared with other parts of the country such as Tokyo. The graph below gives a pictorial difference in temperature and precipitation of Minamata in General as compared with Tokyo. Source: Travel Friend (2011) Precipitation is generated from the clouds. According to the Frondriest Environmental Inc (2011), precipitation is any form of water that falls to the earth’s surface. This includes snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain and hail”. From the graph we see that because of the presence of the Bay and sea in general, Minamata has a very high precipitation as compared to Tokyo. The highest precipitations of the year are recorded in June and July when precipitation can go as high as rising beyond 15mm. January, February and December however records very low precipitations because at those times of the year, there is relatively low levels of water in the air. As far as temperature is concerned, Minamata records temperature levels that are not very much different from that of Tokyo. Temperatures also vary a lot in the course of the year. Whereas temperatures can go as low as below 5°C in the months of January, February and December, it at times rises high above 30°C in August and September. To this effect, it can be said that Minamata Bay has a temperate climate. The specific values of temperature and precipitation for the various months are given in the table below: Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Average High Temperature (°C) 10.5 11.3 14.8 19.9 23.8 26.6 30.1 31.1 28.1 23.5 18.3 13 Average Low Temperature (°C) 2.7 3.1 6.3 10.4 14.6 19.3 23 23.3 20.2 14.3 9.5 4.5 Average Precipitation (mm) 74 78.2 158.5 147.5 190.3 409.8 417.5 228.6 198.8 95.8 80.4 52.6 Source: Travel Friend (2011) • Human Presence, Activities and Alternations People live all around the Minamata Bay and are involved in active regular activities. According to the GeoNames geographical database, Minamata Bay, Japan has a population of 29,428 people. Majority of the working class of the people living in Minamata Bay are involved in factory work. This is because Minamata itself is tagged as a factory town. Most of the people in Minamata depends on the presence of factories to make a living. There are some who also take advantage of the presence of the sea to do a lot of fishing. Generally, almost the entire community of Minamata depends on fishes from the Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea in one way or the other. It was not surprising therefore that when the bay became populated in the 1950s and 1960s with high toxic compounds which built up in fish and shellfish, over 10,000 people became infected with the disease that came to be known as the Minamata Disease. These people were infected basically because their livelihood and eating pattern depends on the fish and products of the sea. When the Minamata disaster broke out in the 1950s and 1960s, it was expected that the number of people resident near the coastline would vacate for other parts of the country that were saver and not prone to sea poisoning. However, this did not happen much. Most of the people continued to live in the coastline and have lived there up to date. It is even surprising to note that the activities and lifestyle of these people have not changed much as most of them are still in sea related activities and occupation. Recently, there was an event to upgrade the Minamata Bay into becoming an Eco-tourism model site (Otsuka, 2010, Green Japan). This of course is a step in the right direction as such a move would shift the focus of most people living in the coastline from doing direct sea work into taking up new careers in tourism. As a matter of fact, for Minamata Bay to become an eco-tourist site is long overdue. This is because the site is blessed with natural and geographic as well as ecological settings that would easily be admired and appreciated by tourists who travel to the site. As much as this move would change the livelihood of humans living in the coastline for the better, it would also ensure that there is very little pressure on the Bay and the living creatures in the sea such as the sea. Certainly, when it gains the status as a tourist site, government and other stakeholders would be concerned much even to vote money into developing the area. Funds generated through the tourist activities could also be used to develop the area. • Plate Tectonic Setting The plate tectonic setting of Minamata Bay is nothing different from the plate tectonic setting of Japan as a whole. As far as plate tectonic is concerned, there are two major plates that come to play in the Minamata Bay area. These are the Euro-Asian plate and North America Plate. Earthquakes take place in the length of a collision boundary between the two plates thus Euro-Asian and American plates (NEID, 2004). The earthquake in Japan as a whole is found at the eastern side of Fossa-Magna and generally undergoes extensive and rapid folding. During events of earthquake, the folding axes are shattered by sinisterly lateral strike-slip faults. “The modern episode of seduction is documented by widely distributed volcanic activity, which started at ~8 Ma in southern Kyushu and by 6 Ma in southwest Japan” (Kamata and Kodama, 1994). • Overall Geology Otuo (2011) sees geology to be “a broad scientific discipline that studeis earth through the history and process of rocks and minerals.” Talking of the geology of Minamata Bay would therefore include and cover the history of materials and activities such as rock, landslides, floods, glaciers, earthquakes, volcanoes, minerals. These would also be discussed in relation to their effect on human life. Generally, the rock type in the Minamata Bay are granite and limestone. There is also the presence of marine sedimentary rocks that generally thickens towards the south. The region has experienced a couple of recurrent landslides especially occurring in the wet highland areas. Flooding is not very common because the sea in the bay is generally shallow. However on occasional cases where precipitation activities such as rainfall go high, the bay floods its banks. Presently, there are no real glaciers in the Minamata Bay or any part of Japan though there have been reports of small permanent snowfields and glacial ice in areas around the Sharanui Sea where the Minamata Bay is situated. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (2011), there have been records of earthquakes in regions close and around Minamata Bay. However, these earthquakes do not pose any threats to the formation of tsunamis. Volcanoes are common in the Minamata Bay and areas around it. Kumamoto where Minamata Bay is situated itself has several volcano sites that serve as tourist destination. It is reported by the of the Mercury Poisoning Technical Report that “natural mercury sources include volcano eruptions, groundwater seepage, and ocean evaporation that take place in the Minamata Bay (Justus, 1998). Touching on minerals, it can be said that with the presence of the sea, the Minamata Bay has been the hub for salt. The EduScape (2011) explains that “Salt is a clear, brittle mineral that contains the elements of sodium and chlorine. Its chemical formula is NaCl; its mineral name is halite. Salt forms clear, cube-shaped crystals. Impurities can cause salt to appear white, gray, yellow, or red.” Salt produced in the Minamata Bay is generally white and used for both industrial and domestic purposes. • Coastal Materials and Wave climate The commonest coastal process that takes place in the Minamata Bay is ocean waves. The ocean waves has a lot of effect on the morphology is general land form of the Bay. According to Pidwirny (2006), “The various landforms of coastal areas are almost exclusively the result of the action of ocean waves. Wave action creates some of the world's most spectacular erosional landforms. Where wave energy is reduced depositional landforms, like beaches, are created.” At the Minamata Bay, the ocean wave action is the number one source where coastal erosion takes its energy and also sediment transport. The waves contains both potential and kinetic energies. Pidwirny (2006) notes that “A wave possesses potential energy as a result of its position above the wave trough, and kinetic energy caused by the motion of the water within the wave.” Transportation, Erosion, Transportation, and Deposition that go on along the coast of Minamata Bay are also dependent on ocean waves. It not surprising therefore that Pidwirny (2006) observes that like in many coast such as Minamata Bay, “A number of mechanical and chemical effects produce erosion of rocky shorelines by waves. Depending on the geology of the coastline, nature of wave attack, and long-term changes in sea-level as well as tidal ranges, erosional landforms such as wave-cut notches, sea cliffs and even unusual landforms such as caves, sea arches, and sea stacks can form.” • Relative Sea Level and Tidal Regime The position and height of sea relative to the land (relative sea level - RSL) determines the location of the shoreline [see shoreline position]. Changes in relative sea level at Minamata Bay is caused primarily by the large-scale changes in the configuration of continental margins and ocean floors (Geoindicators, 2009). There are other factors such as “thermal expansion of ocean waters, changes in meltwater load, crustal rebound from glaciation, uplift or subsidence in coastal areas related to various tectonic processes (e.g. seismic disturbance and volcanic action), fluid withdrawal, and sediment deposition and compaction” (Geoindicators, 2009). However because not all these factors take place as regularly as possible in the Minamata Bay, and also due to the fact that the Shiranui Sea is shallow, tide-gauge records suggest an average sea-level rise 2mm per year. This level is also partly due to human-inclined activities such as deforestation and industrial activities hat causes global warming. Tidal flow is not restricted in the Minamata Bay this is because there is no restrictions in the building of a travel way over a salt marsh and there are no bridge or culvert is installed on the tidal creek (New Hemisphere Department of Environmental Service, 2009). For this reason, most often than not, the tides flow ashore and wash waste materials and thrash back into the sea. • Current Issues of Social and Ecological Concerns Coastal ecosystems such as the one that exists in Minamata Bay is not static but varying and dynamic. This is because it keeps changing in both time and space. As regularly as possible, there is the continuous change in the production of different species of both phytoplankton and zooplankton organizations in the coastal area. It situation is not surprising as the Minamata Bay is a transitional waters. Because of the changes the take place regularly in marine ecosystem in Minamata Bay, there is also different levels of the food chain and food web as fish, birds, macrofauna, phytoplankton and zooplankton continue to dominate the food web. A common issue of social interest has to do with the production and use of mercury in factories and industries in and around the Minamata Bay especially those who ply their trade right in the heart of the seas. This is because the Minamata Bay has a bad history of an outbreak of the Minamata Disease which killed several people. The continual production of mercury at the bay would continue to be threatening as the United states Geological Survey (2000) warns that “the toxic effects of mercury depend on its chemical form and the route of exposure. Methylmercury [CH3Hg] is the most toxic form. It affects the immune system, alters genetic and enzyme systems, and damages the nervous system, including coordination and the senses of touch, taste, and sight.” • Water quality According to the University of Liverpool (2004), “On March 20, 1973, Japan's Kumamoto District Court ruled: "It must be said that a chemical plant, in discharging the waste water out of the plant, incurs an obligation to be highly diligent; to confirm safety through researches and studies regarding the presence of dangerous substances mixed in the waste water as well as their possible effects upon the animal, the plan, and the human body, always availing itself of the highest skill and knowledge; to provide necessary and maximum preventive measures such as immediate suspension of operation if a case should arise where there be some doubts as to safety... in the final analysis...no plant can be permitted to infringe on and run at the sacrifice of the lives and health of the regional residents.”” This reports passes a judgmental state of the water quality of the Minamata Bay. Judging with the ARUN District Council’s (2011) scale for water quality, it can be said that the water quality of Minamata Bay, despite the presence of mercury on occasional cases could be judged as Satisfactory Water Quality because it passes Mandatory Standards for Bathing Water Directive. That is, the “ to total coliforms are no more than 10,000 per 100ml of water.” • Future prospects, if there is anything interesting. The major future prospect for the Minamata Bay is to make the place one of the world’s most patronized eco-tourism models. This is because the area of land in the Bay, the history of the Minamata region itself and activities that go on there has the potential of attracting a lot of tourists. Again, there is the consideration for the modification of processes by which fishers at the bay work. This is to include eco-friendly methods of fishing that would not poison the sea as it did happen in the Minamata Mercury poisoning incident. REFERENCE LIST ARUN District Council’s (2011). Sea Water Quality. Accessed May 9, 2011 from http://www1.arun.gov.uk/cgi-bin/buildpage.pl?mysql=876 Frondriest Envionmental Inc (2011), Precipitation, accessed May 4, 2011 from http://www.fondriest.com/science_library-htm/precipitation.htm GeoNames Datasources (2011), Population of Minamata, accessed May 5, 2011 from http://geonames.otg/data-sources.html Goeindicators (2009) Relative Sea Levels. Accessed May 9, 2011 from http://www.lgt.lt/geoin/doc.php?did=cl_relative Japan Meteorological Agency (2011). Earthquake Information. Accessed May 6, 2011 from http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/ Justus S. (1998) mercury poisoning: the Minamata tragedy. Mercury Poisoning Technical Report. Accessed May 6, 2011 from http://members.tripod.com/~Sandra_Justus/MercuryPoisoningReport.html New Hemisphere Department of Environmental Service, (2009). “ Monitoring Tidal Regime. Accessed May 8, 2011 from http://des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/water/wmb/coastal/restoration/ecology/tidal.htm Otsuka R. (2010). Minamata Declares Becoming an Eco-tourism Model Region. Accessed May 4, 2011 from http://greenjapan.com/japan-now-then/3100 Otuo G.H (2011). What is Geology? Accessed May 4 2011 from http://www.wisegeek.com/m/what-is-geology.htm Pidwirny, M. (2006). "Coastal and Marine Processes and Landforms". Fundamentals of Physical Geography, 2nd Edition. Date Viewed. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/10ac.html The EduScape (2011). Salt.accessed May 5, 2011 from http://42explore.com/salt.htm The Free Dictionary (2011) Bay, accessed May 6, 2011 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/dict.aspx?word=bay Travel Friend (2011), Minamata Temperature , accessed May 5, 2011 from http://www2m.biglobe.ne.jp/%257EZenTech/English/Climate/Japan/Minamata.htm United states Geological Survey (2000). Mercury in the Environment: Fact Sheet 146-00 (October 2000). Accessed May 6, 2011 from http://www.usgs.gov/themes/factsheet/146-00/ University of Liverpool (2004), Mercury: Minamata Bay Details. Accessed May 4, 2011 from http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/aquabiol/mercury/minamata/minamatanotes_long.htm Warwick, R.A., E.M.Barrow & T.M.L.Wigley 1993. Climate and sea level change: observations, projections and implications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More