Disabled Fishermen Get New Boat

The new boat “Yahata 5”

The Hachiman-kai Social Welfare Association in Nagasaki Prefecture is helping disabled students learn to work in the fish farming industry.

The students are members of the Akatsuki Gakuen, a school that caters to those with disabilities. The school was recently presented with a new boat, the “Yahata Maru No.5,” for their fish farming venture.

Shinto ceremony for the launch of the fishing farm boat

Funds to buy the boat were donated by The Nippon Foundation. The boat is 14 meters long with a displacement of 5.5 tons. 200 people attended its March lauching ceremony.

Following the ceremony, attendees took rides around the harbor.

The launch ceremony festivities

Akatsuki Gakuen began its aquaculture activities in 1983, and in 1988 obtained a used fishing boat with the help of local residents. With this, it began training its disabled students to farm fish.

The school’s fish farming area is 2 kilometers offshore and descends to a depth of 7.5 meters. Almost 40,000 fish of different varieties are raised there, and then sold through local and prefectural fishing cooperatives.

In recent years, the previous fishing boat had increasingly required costly maintenance and repair, so The Nippon Foundation provided a 15 million yen grant to purchase a brand new boat. One of the benefits of the new boat is that the deck is flat, and provides ample space for movement on both sides of the craft. These points are important for wheelchair-borne sailors.

It is also a larger boat than the school’s original budget could have afforded, allowing for students with even severe handicaps to bring their wheelchairs aboard. They, too, will be able to take part in such tasks as feeding the fish in the farm.

50 students study at Akatsuki Gakuen. Usually 5 people per day go out on the boat, on a rotational basis. Students range from 20 to 42 years of age. Their work includes filling orders from supermarkets and fish markets, cleaning nets, and maintaining the fishing farm.

Officials do say that it is sometimes difficult for handicapped students to keep up with the demands of the aquaculture program, but their experiences and the contact they have with people and nature are very important.

Handicapped persons in wheelchairs aboard the new boat, and part of the launch ceremony that involves throwing rice as a blessing to the boat and crew that work aboard her.

（This article is based on reports by The Nippon Foundation welfare projects group）

Indepth Articles