• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.71-83
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• 2011

An ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) approach becomes more important as an alternative management method for a sustainable development of fisheries domestically and internationally. Many methods of applying a practical EBFM to fisheries management have been investigated, and considerable attention has been given to developing effective indicators of the present status of and changes in ecosystems and putting them to practical use. Among ecosystem indicators, developing socioeconomic indicators for EBFM is particularly important. This is because socioeconomic factors have direct effects on ecosystems, and ecosystems have direct effects on socioeconomic factors. Therefore, it is imperative that socioeconomic indicators are developed and evaluated in order to predict changes in ecosystems and to provide advice for effective fisheries management. This study is aimed to develop socioeconomic indicators which can be combined with biological and ecological indicators, in order to conduct the ecosystem-based fisheries assessment. In terms of socioeconomic indicators, five socioeconomic criteria were considered as important attributes of socioeconomic changes. These criteria include economical production, business conditions, income, market, and employment indicators. For evaluation of newly developed socioeconomic indicators, the Traffic Light System (TLS) method was used. In addition, on the basis of the application of developed indicators to the Korean large purse seine fishery, the socioeconomic conditions of the fishery and the usefulness of the indicators were evaluated and management implications were discussed.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.453-465
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• 2017

UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, a set of 17 objectives with 169 targets expected to guide actions over the next 15 years (2016-2030). One goal expressly focuses on the oceans, that is, SDG 14 'Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development'. More than 30% of fish stocks worldwide were classified by FAO(2016) as overfished. Globally, world capture fisheries are near the ocean's productive capacity with catches on the order of 80 million metric tons. Aquaculture production is increasing rapidly and is expected to continue to increase, but aquaculture encounters some environmental challenges, including potential pollution, competition with wild fishery resources, potential contamination of gene pools, disease problems, and loss of habitat. Accordingly, there have been a variety of world organization and conferences stressing the importance of the implementation of the ecosystem-based fisheries management(EBFM) to overcome these problems. Annual catch of Korean fisheries have shown continuously declining patterns since late 1990s. Most fish stocks are currently known to be over-exploited, and some stocks are depleted due to the increase in fishing intensity and over-capitalization of fishing fleets. Other reasons for the depletion are land reclamations and coastal pollution, which destroy spawning and nursery grounds along the coastal regions. Aquaculture production is also increasing rapidly in Korea. However, several important issues such as gene pool and interaction with capture fisheries should be considered. The EBFM approach should use the best available information coupled with a reasonable application of the precautionary approach. The EBFM has global relevance, and so the real challenge will be to develop and use reliable, robust and cost-effective means of assessing and monitoring the status of ecosystems and their resources, and rapid means of detecting any undesirable and excessive impacts that threaten sustainable use. Future fisheries education should take into account UN's SDGs, which were adopted to achieve the global 2030 agenda. However, there are some difficulties in the current fisheries education system in Korea. First, the current education organizations are limited within the old frame of traditional fisheries sciences. Second, the fisheries education is currently lack of the future-oriented education system and of customized schools or departments. Third, the on-going fisheries education has been based upon few educational policies which are sufficiently relevant to holistic SDGs of the global standard. Accordingly, directions to modern fisheries education for achieving SDGs would be, first, the transition of fisheries education structure into the future-oriented and customized education system. Second, fisheries education needs to shift to the new paradigm, which combines traditional fisheries science education with related fields such as oceanography and environmental sciences to adopt the concept of EBFM. Lastly, fisheries education should accompany relevant policies for effectively achieving SDGs.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.24-30
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• 2007

We developed an ecosystem indicator (EI) for the coastal and offshore areas of Korean waters. One of the major scientific challenges of this undertaking was to translate broad policy statements for ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) into practical terms. Fish reproduction potential (FRP) was defined as an EI to describe the reproductive probability of adult fisheries resources in Korean waters. The FRP was estimated as the ratio of adult fish composition to total catch, catches (in metric tons) by species and by ecosystem, and fishery effort (in horse power per metric ton). The FRP indices of the East/japan Sea Ecosystem (EJSE), Yellow Sea Ecosystem (YSE), and East China Sea Ecosystem (ECSE) began to decrease after the mid-1980s, and the current indices have decreased further, at 0.63 (EJSE), 1.22 (YSE), and 0.68 (ECSE) index points compared to the indices of 1975, when similar catch amounts were recorded. Lower FRPs in the Korean marine ecosystems were the result of higher proportion of immature fisheries resources in the total catch. Because this kind of ecosystem-level indicator is thought to reflect scientific approaches to EBFM and to provide an important tool for assessing the current status of marine ecosystems with respect to both quantity and quality, more EIs should be developed for Korean waters.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.369-389
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• 2011

Changes in ecosystem risks were evaluated using the ecosystem-based fisheries assessment (EBFA) approach of Zhang et al. (2009, 2010) and the comprehensive ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) plan was made for the southern sea of Korea in this study. The risk assessment of the southern sea ecosystem was conducted by establishing ecosystem management objectives and by estimating risk scores (RS) for indicators. To conduct this analysis a number of indicators and their reference points for assessing these risk scores were developed in this study. The number of indicators in the risk analysis was 28 for the quantitative tier 1 analysis and 30 for the qualitative tier 2 analysis. The objective risk index (ORI), species risk index (SRI) and fisheries risk index (FRI) were calculated from the risk scores. Comparing the past (1988) and the current (2008) status of fisheries resources, management implications were discussed. The fishery risk index (FRI) of large purse seine fishery in the southern sea of Korea decreased substantially from 0.972 in 1988 to 0.883 in 2008, and improvement in the management of fisheries operated in the southern sea of Korea.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.97-110
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• 2009

Two of the most important topics of the 21st century are ensuring harmony between man and his environment and the emerging long-tail economy in which niche markets are becoming increasingly more important. Since the Industrial Revolution in 17th century, human beings have increasingly exploited the world's natural capital, such as the natural environment and its ecosystems. Now the world is facing limits to sustainable economic growth because of limits to this natural capital. Thus, most countries are beginning to adopt a new development paradigm, the so-called"Green Development Paradigm" which pursues environmental conservation in parallel with economic growth. Recently, the Korean government announced an ambitious national policy of Low Carbon & Green Growth for the next six decades. This is an important step that transforms the existing national policy into a new future-oriented one. The fisheries sector in particular has great potential for making a substantial contribution to this national policy initiative. For example, the ocean itself with its sea plants and phytoplankton has an enormous capacity for fixing carbon, and its vast areas of tidal flats have a tremendous potential for cleaning up pollutants from both the sea and the land. Furthermore, the fishing industry has great potential for the development of fuel-saving biodegradable technologies, and a long-tail economy based on digital technologies can do much to promote the production and consumption of green goods and services derived from the oceans and the fisheries. In order for this potential to be realized, the fisheries authority needs to develop a new green-growth strategy that is practical and widely supported by fishing communities and the markets, taking into account the need for greenhouse gas reduction, conservation of the ocean environment and ecosystems, an improved system for seafood safety, the establishment of strengthened MCS (monitoring control surveillance) system, and the development of coastal ecotourism. In addition, fisheries green policies need to be implemented through a well-organized system of government aids, regulations and compensation, and spontaneous (voluntary) orders in fishing communities should be promoted to encourage far more responsible fisheries.