The Whaling town Ayukawa of Japan which is famous for hunting whales and has survived the wrath of environmental groups for decades, but had no defence against nature's wrath through a giant tsunami that wiped out the industry there, possibly forever.
The town was already down to a single operating company, Ayukawa Whaling, one of only four communities in Japan that have continued to hunt and eat whales in defiance of international opposition.
The March 11 tsunami that slammed into Japan's northeast coast took most of Ayukawa with it, destroying 80 per cent of houses and leaving 400 of its 1,400 residents unaccounted for.
The wave shattered Ayukawa Whaling's storage facility and carried its fleet of three whaling ships hundreds of metres inland where they now lie grounded and impotent.
