Fishermen in Japan are celebrating Nori or Seaweed day, an annual event aimed at promoting greater consumption of the greenish-black seaweed that is a staple of Japanese dishes.

But fishermen who harvest the seaweed say their industry is in crisis because of a sharp fall in production.

They are blaming a controversial land reclamation project begun three years ago in the Ariake Sea, which accounts for more than forty percent of the country's seaweed.

Last month several thousand Japanese fishermen formed a flotilla of boats to protest againt the project.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service