Live camera
Ago Bay from Mount Yokoyama live camera — Shima, Mie
A ria coast of countless islets and inlets seen from above. Thin lines of pearl oyster rafts run across the water.
Sample August 2026What you are looking at
A ria coast of countless islands and inlets, seen from above from the heights of Yokoyama. Rafts for pearl farming line the water in thin rows.
This intricate coastline was made when valleys that had been dry land sank and the sea came in. What had been ridgelines stayed above water as islands; what had been valleys became inlets. So the arrangement of the islands and the shape of the inlets trace the terrain exactly as it was before it drowned. Open-sea waves cannot reach far in, which keeps the water calm — and that is also why it suits aquaculture.
Pearl farming began in this bay in 1893, when Mikimoto Kokichi succeeded in growing half-pearls on a small island inside it, and went on from there to round pearls. The rafts lined up on the water are the continuation of that, more than a century on. The bay averages only about six metres deep — far shallower than it looks.
The morning calm is beautiful. On a windless morning the inlets go flat and the shapes of the islands are reflected in the water.
Updates come once an hour, so reopening it may show the same picture. Nothing shows after dark. If you want a different time of day, leave at least an hour.
About this camera
| Place | Shima, Mie |
| Format | Still, hourly |
| Time zone | Asia/Tokyo (UTC+9) |
| Category | Sea |
| Operator | Ministry of the Environment — Internet Nature Institute |
| Terms of use | PDL 1.0 |
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