Fears about contaminated seafood from Japan are starting to make sushi lovers wary. With radioactive water draining into the sea from the damaged Fukushima reactors, places as varied as Bulgaria and Hong Kong have already restricted imports of Japanese seafood. But experts say the Pacific Ocean is so vast, there is very little threat that marine life would be impacted.
But away from the nuclear facility, the Pacific coast of Japan was devastated by the tsunami. That's where the world's best green seaweed is grown. Just the right temperature, salinity and sunlight combine to produce sanriku wakame — what you see in miso soup.
Japanese seaweed farmers on this coastline are in a world of hurt these days — their livelihoods washed away by the tsunami, and now the reputation of their products threatened by nuclear jitters.
"We have to live day by day," says Mitsue Murakami, a seaweed, scallops and oyster sea farmer on the island of Oshima.
Read the complete story from Minnesota Public Radio.