Iki Island

Iki Island (壱岐島) is an island lying between the island of Kyūshū and the Tsushima islands in the Tsushima Strait, the eastern channel of the Korea Strait. It is currently part of Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan. The city of Iki is the centre of the local government. The island has three ports.

The island’s residents gain their livelihood primarily from the sea. Until the mid-1970s, they were prosperous, owing to their proximity to a highly productive fishing area known as the Shichiriga Banks. Those waters were also on the migration route of vast pods of dolphins — bottlenose, gray and white Risso’s, and black false killer whales.