Good day! I am Raphael Villaluz, a B4 Student in the Nakamura Laboratory. With the rest of the Shizugawa Bay team (Sensei, Takahashi and Miyagi san), we conducted a field survey in Shizugawa Bay on July 2025.
Shizugawa Bay is in Miyagi Prefecture, and in order to go there we rented a car in Sendai City, so the field survey was a good chance to tour the city before we had to start our work. You can also take this chance to try Japan’s Shinkansen train (I got a ticket for the ride!)
In Shizugawa Bay our main line of work is collecting data in the neighbouring rivers and the bay itself. In the rivers data is generally collected in two ways. One of them is by either immersing one of our sensors into the water to collect real-time dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a, and turbidity data, among others. The other is by retrieving sensors we deployed in some rivers in the long-term, also containing water quality data.
In the bay we used a sensor capable of vertical profiling to collect water quality data similar to the ones gathered for the rivers. In addition water samples were collected for the sea surface bottom areas for nutrient analysis. Sensors that were installed in oyster rafts from a past field survey were also retrieved and cleaned. Not only that, but it is also possible to understand how Shizugawa Bay’s aquaculture was organised as you can see oyster rafts and the farms for silver salmon, scallops and other aquaculture.
We also had a headquarters nearby the bay for data retrieval and analysis. In here a radon isotope was analysed from water samples for Miyagi san’s research. Additionally a system for filtering debris from river and bay water samples was also used, where rings collecting debris was collected for further analysis.
Outside of these activities we also made sure to enjoy fresh seafood from local stores and our overnight inn. I was able to get myself the best tempura bowl and oysters I ever had here!
