. >> reporter: at the end of february, he traveled to iwate prefecture. some fishermen had invited him to take pictures. the fishery is here among japan's top producers of abalone, sea urchin and other luxury seafood. but after the disaster, a lot of debris was carried out to sea. the fisheries have plummeted to 30% of previous levels. city officials had all the concrete rubble dumped into one area. they wanted to find out if sea urchin and abalone would attach themself to the debris. but the plan was put on hold. they hope business will resume first. so they thought he could give them a sense of what's going on under the surface. >> translator: last year we were only able to try harvesting sea urchins twice. at one point, we hardly caught any. >> reporter: he will check if the sea urchin and abalone are living around the debris. about eight meters down, he sees some wreckage. as he approaches a large chunk, he discovers that a few sea urchin are living on it. the the but he only found one abalone. however, seaweed which abalone eat is growing amid the ru

>> reporter: they named the sweets taro after the city in iwate prefecture. two years ago a tsunami 50 meters high tore through the neighborhood. this is where the snacks were made and sold before the disast disaster. this 58-year-old man is the third generation of his family to own the business. they know what it is like for history to repeat itself. in 1933, his grandfather also saw a tsunami destroy his shop. but after a year of back breaking work, the elder tafaka was selling the sweet again. interpret i want to do even better than my grandfather. if i don't rebuild, i'll have no excuses to offer people who are working hard to recover from the tsunami. >> reporter: the giant wave of 2011 also carried away tanaka's home. he's still living in temporary housing. despite all the challenges, he managed to rebuild his store and his new factory stands on safer ground away from the sea. he also bought equipment, including machines for mixing and frying. but he had to borrow $800,000 to pay for the new facility. last month for the first time in two yearsing with h