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Story — 25 Years
The story of Shozo Kesamaru and the sea of Kushiura, Karatsu.
A few years into my life as a fisherman, I began to notice the seaweed forest thinning, little by little, until bare white rock lay exposed.
“If this goes on, the sea will die.”
That fear was where everything began.
What on earth was causing it?
I was a man of the sea, and yet I knew very little about seaweed.
I studied in my own way, formed hunches, and tested them, day after day.
Work with no textbook is one failure after another.
Long years with nothing to show for them.
What am I even doing this for? I asked myself, again and again.
To work off that frustration, I only dove more.
One day, deep in the monitoring work I had been pouring my hours into, I noticed a tiny seaweed sprout.
It was the moment the labor I had put in finally became something I could see.
Over 25 years, the seaweed forest returned.
Today the old blue of the sea shines again, and a wide circle of people — neighbors, government, companies, researchers — stands with me.
What one man began alone has grown into BLUE REVIVE — work that connects the region, business, and government.
What we proved at Kushiura, we carry to the next sea. So that reviving the ocean becomes ordinary for the generation after us.
To build the sea is to build our food.
“For every bit of care we give,
the sea gives back in kind.」
Shozo Kesamaru — Founder / Sea urchin fisherman / Seaweed bed restorer