The fishermen of Fukushima 12 years after the nuclear disaster

Morning is already dawning as 71-year-old fisherman Haruo Ono unloads his catch at the small port of Shinchimachi. Ono, a third-generation fisherman, has been putting out to sea for half a century from Shinchimachi, just 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where one of the world's worst nuclear disasters occurred in 2011.

While cleaning noodle fish, Ono remembers the day that changed everything: On March 11, 2011, a magnitude nine earthquake triggered huge tsunami waves on Japan's east coast. The fisherman survived on his boat, but his home on land was destroyed. He lost a younger brother. The tsunami also hit the Fukushima nuclear power plant, triggering explosions and a meltdown.

The radiation released during the reactor disaster brought the fishing industry in the region to a complete standstill. After 12 years, there are signs of a slight recovery, and fish prices are slowly picking up again. Ono finds the plans of the energy company TEPCO to discharge the contaminated water into the sea again "unbearable." "We have to go back to square one again," he fears.

The countless water tanks on the site of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are a bone of contention. According to the authorities, the tanks must be removed before reconstruction. The water was mainly used to cool the reactors after the disaster.

A TEPCO employee holds a sample of treated water up to the camera. The water is treated, filtered and diluted. TEPCO and the government claim it is now safe. However, it contains traces of tritium. Although the radioactive isotope is considered relatively harmless, fishermen fear that discharging the water into the sea will once again destroy their business.

Energy company TEPCO and the Tokyo government cite radiation testing standards that are more stringent than those of other countries that also discharge treated water. The release was also approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "We have the equipment to make the water safe," TEPCO spokesman Tomohiko Mayuzum told Reuters news agency.

To prove how harmless the treated water is, TEPCO is breeding flounder in tanks at the decommissioned Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Toshihiro Wada of Fukushima University can understand the fishermen's concerns: TEPCO's announcement to drain the contaminated water is "unfortunate" for the region's just-recovering fisheries, he said.

Before the sale, fisherman Haruo Ono pours his catch into a water tank. He is angry with TEPCO: "The ocean isn’t a garbage can," he says in an interview with the Reuters news agency and asks: "Why release water into the Fukushima ocean, why not Tokyo or Osaka?" The people of the region have already suffered enough, he says, and now they are being made to suffer even more.

Fisherman Ono on the spot where his house used to stand. After the tsunami, the area was turned into a park. Even though his new home is further inland, the 71-year old will be "working at sea" until his death. His outlook for for the future of fishing is bleak. "What about the kids in primary and junior school?," he asks. "It’s way too unstable for them to make a living from this."