brian 2008-4-9 12:36 PM
Japan to plant thousands of corals to bolster claim over Pacific Ocean islets
[b]The aim is to protect the islets from erosion and maintain Japan's claim
[/b]Japan is mounting a US$7 million coral transplanting operation in the Pacific aimed at bolstering its side of a territorial dispute with China, and cementing Tokyo's right to exploit a wide expanse of ocean.
Over the next year, scientists will plant over 50,000 fast-growing Acropora coral fragments on Okinotorishima, two uninhabited rocky outcroppings about 1,700 kilometres (1,060 miles) southwest of Tokyo, project officials say.
The aim is to protect the islets, now circled by concrete seawalls, from further erosion and maintain Japan's claim that they are bona fide islands that can be used to map its exclusive economic zone in the Pacific.
In a sometimes heated dispute, China has challenged Japan's claim, arguing that the outcroppings are too small to be defined as islands under international law, meaning the waters around them are open to use by other nations.
China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing yesterday she hadn't heard of the project and had no comment.
