Seaweed beds, the ‘cradle of the sea,’ vanishing
February 8th, 2010 
Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin
Asahi Shimbun: Fisherman Hideo Kawamura recalls how the Suruga Bay seabed full of kelp and other sea grasses gave him an eerie feeling as a novice abalone catcher. "I went down to find grasses dancing as if they were the long hairs of a woman. It was scary," the 75-year-old says, but he could harvest "lots of large abalones." That was more than 50 years ago. The rich seaweed beds stretching 8,000 hectares and brimming with fish in the western coast of the bay off Shizuoka Prefecture ......
Posted in Ocean 