EMECS 11 – Sea Coasts XXVI, August 22-27, 2016, St Petersburg, Russia

P115. “TSUNAGARUKA” PROJECT, CONNECTION AMONG FORESTS,RIVERS AND THE SEA FOR THE SOLUTION OF SEAFLOOR LITTERPROBLEMNoe Saito1
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Sanyo girls’ high school, Japanhosomi@emecs.or.jp
The problem of pollution on the seafloor of the Seto Inland Sea has not
improved due to the fact that few people are aware of the problem, theinvisibility of the litter, and shortage of garbage collectors. People don'ttake it as their own problem because they don't know that 70%of thelitter on the seafloor contains plastic garbage, to larger items likebicycles, engines, and discarded every day appliances like washingmachines and refrigerators which shows that the problem is closely
related to our lives. As the enclosed coastal sea is greatly affected by its
surroundings, it is critical that people who may affect it should correctly
understand the current conditions in the sea and take proper actions.
To grasp the level of understanding of the litter problem, we asked
residents along the Takahashi River, a major river flowing into the Seto
Inland Sea, and those living in the coastal areas to answer
questionnaires about the seafloor litter problem. The result I found wasthat the further from the sea residents lived, the less knowledge about
the problem they had. I noticed that the towns far from the sea rarely
had events to learn about seafloor litter as it was not important enoughto them to be considered, while the coastal areas did have such events
more often.
I also studied the characteristics of the seafloor litter more closely toidentify where each piece of litter came from. I did research in theupper river basin and the coastal areas. Naturally, I found much litterfrom the coastal areas, but I also found quite a lot of litter broken into
small pieces from the upper-river basin that flowed into the sea. It was
confirmed that reduction of litter in the rivers is one of the key factors
for the solution of the seafloor litter problem.

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EMECS 11 – Sea Coasts XXVI, August 22-27, 2016, St Petersburg, Russia

Explaining at the museum
Therefore I moved on to the next phase of our activity called
Tsunagaruka, which literally means ‘connection’ in Japanese. Our
activities include a simultaneous litter reduction challenge targeting theupper river towns and the coastal regions to raise awareness that forest,
rivers and the inland sea are interconnected. I had campaigns for people
in the different regions to share the information at grass-roots levels sothat the entire region became interconnected to solve the problem
together. I conducted educational presentations in the forest and riverareas and the coastal areas, collected seafloor litter together withpeople fromvarious towns, exhibited posters in museums even on the opposite
shore island of Shikoku.
I am confident that our activities strongly connected the residents inbroader areas than before, and people’s attitudes towards theenvironment of the Seto Inland Sea changed positively no matter where
they lived.
Our activity which started from a small area has spread and is becoming
more influential. Our idea is becoming a movement. Communities arecoming together to solve the seafloor problem hand in hand. I hope that
our efforts around the Seto Inland Sea can be mirrored by communities
around the world.

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