Question:
In Japan, I saw these poles stuck into the ocean all over the place. They were always in calm shallow water, like in a cove or bay. I'm pretty sure people stuck them into the bottom, and they stuck up out of the water. Sometimes they were in rows and patterns. I'm guessing they were wooden or bamboo poles. I'm really curious about it. What are they called and what are they for?
Answer:
They are the poles for "Nori" or seaweed(laver) cultivation.
The poles are either bamboo or glass fiber.
The following explains how Nori is produced;
Production and processing of nori by current methods is a highly advanced form of agriculture. The biology of Porphyra, although complicated, is well understood, and this knowledge is used to control virtually every step of the production process. Farming takes place in the sea where the Porphyra plants grow attached to nets suspended at the sea surface and where the farmers operate from boats. The plants grow rapidly, requiring about 45 days from "seeding" until the first harvest. Multiple harvests can be taken from a single seeding, typically at about ten-day intervals. Harvesting is accomplished using mechanical harvesters of a variety of configurations. Processing of raw product is mostly accomplished by highly automated machines that accurately duplicate traditional manual processing steps, but with much improved efficiency and consistency. The final product is a paper-thin, black, dried sheet of approximately 18 × 20 cm (7 × 8 in) and 3 grams (0.11 oz) in weight.
There are several grades of nori available in the United States. The most common, and least expensive, grades are imported from China, costing about six cents per sheet. At the high end, ranging up to ninety cents per sheet, are "delicate shin-nori (nori from the first of the year's several harvests) cultivated in Ariake Bay, off the island of Kyushu in Japan".[3]
In Japan, over 600 square kilometres (230 sq mi) of Japanese coastal waters are given to producing 350,000 tonnes (340,000 long tons) of nori, worth over a billion dollars. China produces about a third of this amount.[4]
