Ferry service between the main island of Okinawa and a neighboring island resumed on Sunday, three days after operations halted when drifting pumice stones floated into a port.
The stones washed ashore in wide areas of Okinawa after an undersea volcano erupted in the Pacific.
The pumice filled the surface of a port in Kudaka Island, about five kilometers off the main island. Ferry service had been suspended since Thursday.
Footage taken from an NHK helicopter showed local people using nets from fishing boats to remove the stones that remained in the port. Strips of pumice were floating here and there between Kudaka Island and the main Okinawa Island.
Ferry service resumed at 2 p.m., enabling officials to transport the ballots from Sunday’s Lower House election to the main island for counting.
An official from the local election administration commission said it had considered taking the ballots on a Self-Defense Force helicopter, and it was relieved they could be taken by ship as usual.
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