A Report on NGOs Meeting with the Ministry of Defense: "Dugong Calls," Coral Transplantation, and Seafloor Reinforcement Work
The meeting was as frustrating as ever, however. While reiterating its dubious stance that base construction has not impacted the environment, the ministry officials gave more dubious answers to our requests and questions. Unsatisfied, we sent in late December 2020 to the ministry a set of follow-up requests and questions. And, in February 2021, we received similar answers in writing.
Below, we introduce two examples from the ministry's responses to show how unconvincing and suspicious they were. We also discuss critical information on seafloor reinforcement work the ministry plans to carry out.
"Dugong Calls"
In the meeting, the NGOs re-requested the defense ministry to release the recordings of what had been described by the ministry's commissioned expert as "possible dugong calls" in the immediate vicinity of the construction site in 2020. The ministry's monitoring system recorded these sounds more than 200 times from February to August 2020. Most of the recordings took place when there were no construction actives in the waters. (see this article)
The ministry refused our request and has continued to refuse until now. And it has given a most unconvincing reason for its refusal: the ministry's contract with IDEA, a consulting company that conducts sound monitoring for dugongs, does not have a clause that would allow the ministry to release the recordings.
We all knew its reasons behind its refusal. The ministry states in its Environment Impact Studies that dugongs rarely use this area; if any dugong is present in the construction area, construction will be stopped at least temporarily for further environmental review.
Any sign of the presence of dugongs in the area of Henoko-Oura Bay is just inconvenient to the ministry.
The ministry added that those recordings or dugong calls alone could not confirm the presence of dugongs. It claimed that its surveys had not sighted any dugong and had not found feeding trails in the northern part of Okinawa (We think this in itself is a big problem because dugongs were sighted, and feeding trails were found before landfilling began for base construction). It also raised the possibility that these sounds could have been of construction equipment in the water. All the while, it refused our request that the ministry conduct an environmental DNA test for the dugong.
The NGOs' request for the release of the recordings had two straightforward reasons. First, if the recordings become public, external experts could help determine whether the sounds were of dugongs or not. Second, many people want to hear calls of the Okinawa dugong, a critically endangered species, Japan's Natural Monument, and Okinawa's cultural icon.
To get the defense ministry to release the recordings, the Save the Dugong Campaign Center has started a petition. The Japanese version of the petition has collected over 29,000 signs as of March 8. Its English version has just been launched. We hope many people from the international society join this campaign.
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| SDCC's newly launched petition site |
(Failed) Coral Transplantation
The NGOs asked the defense ministry to provide scientific reasoning and relevant literature for its insistence that its transplantation of Hama-sango coral or Porites okinawensis Veron has been successful as a mitigation measure. Porites okinawensis Verona is an endangered species listed on the Japanese Ministry of the Environment,
In July and August 2018, the defense ministry transplanted nine colonies of Porites okinawensis Veron scheduled for destruction by landfilling. In October 2020, the ministry's monitoring report confirmed that, of the nine colonies, three colonies were considered "dead," and one "disappeared," and one was in critical condition. The NGOs had argued that these results should not be regarded as a success.
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| Photos of failed coral transplantation shown at the meeting |
The ministry's answers and explanations were improbable. It insisted that since there were no previous studies on the transplantation of this specific species, it could not set any quantifiable success rate. Apparently, it did not think that studies of coral transplantation of other similar species were relevant.
The ministry also claimed that these transplanted coral colonies died due to unfavorable natural conditions, including bleaching, not transplantation. It reasoned that the other Porites okinawensis Veron, which had existed in the area to which the coral colonies had been transplanted, suffered similar fatalities. It maintained its selection of locations for transplantation was appropriate.
The ministry emphasized that the Environmental Monitory Committee has agreed with the ministry's evaluations: the ministry's coral transplantation was successful as a mitigation measure; some of the transplanted corals died due to unfavorable natural conditions, not due to base construction. The problem is, the Committee was set up by the defense ministry.
The issue of transplantation of Porites okinawensis Veron should be seen in a broader context. The transplanted colonies are just nine of 39,600 coral colonies that the defense ministry applied in 2019 to the Okinawa prefectural government for transplantation. These numbers point to the scale of environmental destruction the base construction will bring about and the absurdity of coral transplantation as a mitigation measure.
The Okinawa prefectural government has refused to approve the ministry's application, insisting that the Henoko project itself was not acceptable and coral transplantation was neither necessary nor a reliable mitigation measure. Now, the prefectural government finds itself in the Supreme Court fighting against the Japanese government over its refusal to approve the application.
Seafloor Reinforcement Work, or Replacing Sea Bottom? No Environmental Impact?
The NGOs requested the defense ministry to provide details of seafloor reinforcement work, in particular, the numbers, types, and sizes of piles the ministry plan to implant into the seafloor. In 2019, the defense ministry admitted that the seafloor at the construction site in Oura Bay was extremely fragile, with the N-value being zero, requiring colossal reinforcement work. (see this article) For comparison purposes, we also requested the ministry to provide the number, types, and sizes of piles that it initially planned to transplant before discovering the fragile seafloor.
To many readers, these particular requests by the NGOs probably seem odd. This is because the ministry revealed in 2019 that it planned to implant 7,7000 piles into the seafloor. However, in April 2020, when the ministry submitted to the Okinawa prefectural government its application for construction design changes and work, it excluded such information from the application. Since then, it has not officially provided any detailed information on seafloor reinforcement work.
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| The Ryukyu Shimpo's September 2019 illustration shows fragile seafloor in dark blue and the numbers of piles scheduled to be implanted. |
What the ministry provided during the meeting was anything but a plan to destroy Henoko-Oura Bay. By using three different methods, it plans to implant a total of 71,000 piles into the seafloor as reinforcement work. Here are the numbers by each method.
Sand Compaction Pile Method
- Number of piles = 16,000
- Diameter of each pile = 1,600mm~2,000mm or 5.2 feet ~ 6.5 feet
- CDL (Chart Datum Level) or the average sea surface level = -70 m or -230 feet
Sand Drain Method
- Number of piles = 31,000
- Diameter of each pile = 800mm or 2.6 feet
- CDL = -70 m or -230 feet
Paper Drain Method
- Number of piles = 24,000
- Diameter of each pile = 100mm or 0.3 feet.
These numbers indicate what the ministry is trying to do is not seafloor reinforcement work, but replacing the whole sea bottom. Ridiculously, the ministry maintains that replacing the sea bottom is doable in the next 15 years and that there will be no adverse impact to the environment from this colossal work.
The ministry also admitted that its original plan was to implant 2,700 piles for seawalls construction as follows.
- Number of piles = 2,700
- Diameters of piles = 1,400mm to 1,500mm or 4.5 to 4.9 ft.
- CDL = -30m or -100 feet
This means that the ministry’s Environmental Impact Studies completed in 2012 and its follow-up studies conducted in 2013 completely failed to detect the presence of the extremely fragile seafloor. What else has the defense ministry missed in its present estimate of its sea bottom replacement work? How about the availability of equipment for such colossal work?
Stop the Henoko Project!
The Henoko project is simply absurd. The defense ministry knows it well.
For the ministry to continue this project, it needs at least either democratic support from the people of Okinawa or legal validation. Since the people of Okinawa have shown unwavering opposition to the project, the ministry has taken the legal route. That is, as long as the ministry can claim that there is no adverse impact to the environment from construction work, it can insist that it is complying with the laws. Thus, it can proceed with the project.
That’s just what the ministry has been doing, by refusing to release the recording of possible dugong calls or calling the failed transplantation of Porites okinawensis Veron a success.
How long can the ministry and the Japanese government as a whole keep pretending that there have been no environmental impacts? How long can they keep fooling themselves and the U.S. counterparts that the fragile seafloor is no issue and construction is feasible? How long can they keep ignoring that this project is a political disaster and it could become a geo-political liability in the region?
Working with international civil society, the Okinawa Environmental Justice Project is determined to keep pushing these questions to both the Japanese and U.S. governments until they give up on the Henoko project.
