ago bay in central japan, the area is known for its beautiful coastline, el bellished by coastal inlets. some residents make their living by pearl harvesting. but degradation of sea water quality is killing their livelihood. ever since the 19th century, the government has been encouraging farmers to transform the tidal flats into farm land. so 70% of the bay's tidal flats, about 184 have been converted over the. not currently being used in farming operations. this man works at the research institute. he thought that the key to cleaning the sea water was returning the reclaimed areas back to the original tidal flats. so several years ago, he began a test on abandoned land. he opened one of the watergates on the dikes. >> i was pretty convinced that the key is to convert the unused land into rich tidal flats. >> nearly five years later, the area looks like the flat lands of old. since the test began, the creatures that live on the tidal flats have diversified. the number of species has increased six-fold. the environment ministry joined the project. the experiment was expanded to two othe