OFUNATO, Iwate -- Massive forest fires in this northeastern Japan city are thought to have led to the deaths of all of more than 2 million abalone kept at a land-based cultivation farm that had just recovered from damage in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

The farm is managed by Genshoei Kitanihon Fishery Co., one of Japan's leading land-based abalone farming companies, based in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture. The firm had just managed to recover its production to pre-2011 levels. It is now expected to take more than three years to restore production, and there are no clear prospects for securing operating funds in the near future.

"It is truly painful, having finally recovered to prequake sales levels," lamented the company's president, Suehiro Furukawa, 56, his expression clouded with concern.

Furukawa was on a business trip to the prefectural capital city of Morioka on Feb. 26, the day the fires broke out. Upon receiving the news, he rushed back, only to find that he could not enter the Ryori district, where his company and home are located. He was still living as an evacuee at the Sanriku community center in the city as of March 5.

Fukukawa visually checked his facility from the sea on March 2 and found that, apart from some burned water pipes, the company building had suffered no major damage. However, a power outage caused by the fires halted the water supply to the tanks, preventing oxygen from reaching the abalone.

"If the water supply stops for a day, the abalone cannot breathe. The situation is hopeless," Furukawa said, visibly disheartened. The damage is estimated to be around 500 million yen (about $3.38 million). Although a business partner contacted him about providing parent abalone, it will apparently take three to four years to raise juvenile abalone and return to previous production levels.

Founded in 1982, Genshoei Kitanihon Fishery has one of the largest land-based aquaculture facilities in Japan that integrate production from juvenile to adult abalone. Annually, the firm produces about 2 million juvenile abalone and 400,000 for consumption. Although the company was affected by the 2011 tsunami, it consolidated its three facilities in the city into the Ryori district and resumed business in 2014.

In recent years, the company has branded its product as "Sanriku Hisui Awabi" (Sanriku jade abalone), leveraging a stable supply capability unique to aquaculture that is unaffected by climate change to expand its sales channels into Southeast Asia among other regions. The fires struck just as the company was aiming for further business expansion.

The immediate challenge is to secure operating funds such as personnel expenses and facility maintenance costs. With no abalone inventory to use as collateral, Fukukawa said, "It will likely be difficult to secure loans from banks."

Despite no clear outlook for government support, Furukawa remains determined, stating, "With employees to support, we cannot afford to sit idly by. We must use every means possible, including crowdfunding, to sustain the business."

(Japanese original by Hiroshi Endo, Sendai Bureau)