• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.449-461
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• 2023

The aim of this study was to conduct an ecosystem-based fishery risk assessment of tuna fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean. We selected gillnet, purse seine, hand line, baitboat, and longline fisheries as the target fisheries method, and selected longtail tuna (Thunnus tonggol), narrow-barred Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson), kawakawa (Euthynnus affinis), skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), yellowfin tuna (T. albacares), bigeye tuna (T. obesus), albacore tuna (T. alalunga) and swordfish (Xiphias gladius) as the target species. The risk score for the size at the first capture in sustainability objective was high, especially, for the purse seine and baitboat fisheries using the fish aggregating devices (FADs). The risk score for the bycatch in the biodiversity objective was high for the gillnet fishery, and the gillnet fisheries using FADs showed high risks for the habitat quality objective due to the loss of the fishing gears. With regards to the socio-economic benefits objective, the risk score of the sales profits was low due to high sales of the tuna fisheries. The ecosystem risk score in the Western Indian Ocean was estimated to be moderate, although management is required for some of the indicators that have high-risk scores.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.30-46
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• 1992

Korea's first exploratory tuna fishing was done with a used longliner in 1957. Then the commercial fishing has been made steady headway since the 1960's and grown up to one of major tuna fishing countries in 1970's. The tuna fishing aimed primarily at acquiring foreign currency, then tuna was exported directly from the overseas fishing base. Tuna, however, has been gradually favored by Koreans as high-proteined foods according to the growth of GNP since the 1970's. In 1980, the canned tuna began to be produced and sold at home. And so the demand of raw tuna for cannaries has steeply increased not only for home but also for abroad, and stimulated the development of tuna purse seine fishery. The author carried out a study on the development of tuna purse seine fishery in Korea and countries concerned-the United States and Japan-because it is recognized to be significant for the further development of this fishery. Just as purse seining was originated in the United States, so tuna purse seining was also pioneered by Californian fishermen in the west coastal waters of the United States (Eastern Pacific Ocean). They started to produce the canned tuna in the early 1900's, and the demand for raw tuna began to be increased rapidly. In those days, tuna was mostly caught by pole-and-line, but the catch amount was far away from the demand. To satisfy this demand, they began to try out fishing tuna by the use of purse seine which had been born in the eastern waters in the 1820's and applied to catch white fishes in the western waters of the United States in those days. Even though their trial was technically successful through severe trial and error, a new problem was raised on the management of tuna resource and the preservation of porpoise which was occassionally caught with tuna. Then the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) was established by countries neighboring to the United States in 1950 and they set up the Commission's Yellowfin Regulatory Area (CYRA) and regulated the annual quota for yellowfin. Then, American owners tried to send their seiners to the Western African waters to expand the fishing ground in 1967 and to the Centeral-Western Pacfic in 1974, and the fishing ground was widely expanded. The number of the United States' purse seiners amounted to about 150 in 1980, but the enthusiasm was gradually cooled thereafter and the number of seiner was decreased to 67 in 1986. The landing of tuna by purse seiners in the United States after 1980 maintains 200 thousands M/T or so with a little increase despite the decreasing of domestic seiners. This shows that the landing by foreign seiners are increasing, compared with the landing by domestic seiners are decreasing. In Japan, even though purse seining was introduced in 1880, they had fished tuna by longline and pole-and -line until the tuna purse seining was introduced from the United States again. In the 1960's, Japanese tuna seiners made the exploratory fishing in the South-western Pacific and West African waters with a limited success. In 1971, the government-funded research center "JARMRAC" conducted the exploratory fishing which extended to the Central American waters, the Asia-Pacific Region and the South-western Pacific. It had also much difficulties, till they improved the fishing gear adaptable to the new fishing condition in the South-western Pacific. Japanese government has begun to licence 32 single seiners and 7 group seiners since 1980 and their standard has lasted up to now. The catch in the Pacific Islands Region amounted to 160 thousands M/T in 1986. Korea's tuna purse seine fishery was originated in 1971 by Jedong Industrial Co., Ltd. with three used tuna purse seiners purchased from the United States, and they began to fish in the Eastern Pacific, but failed owing to the superannuation of vessel and the infancy of fishing technique. The second challenge was done by Dongwon Industrial Co., Ltd. in 1979, with one used seiner purchased from the United States, and started to fish in the Eastern Pacific. Even though the first trial was almost unsuccessful but they could obtain the noticeable success by removing the vessel to the South-western Pacific in 1980. This success stimulated the Korean entherprisers to take part in this fishery, and the number of Korean tuna purse seiners has been increased rapidly in accordance with the increased demand for raw tuna. The number of vessels actually at work amounted to 36 in 1990 and they operate in the South-western Pacific. The annual catch of tuna by purse seiners amounted to 170 thousands M/T in 1990 and ranked to one of the major tuna purse seining countries in the world.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.50-60
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• 2015

This paper conducted research on identifying the process of change in fishing gear and organizing the function of periodically-used fishing gear types through net plan and computer simulation by selecting the design of the four types of fishing gear used for the Korea tuna purse seiner in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, which 1,000 G/T class and whose length over all 60 m class. In the late 1980s, the length of the tuna purse gear was 1,939 m and the design depth was 160 m, but currently, the length and the design depth are 2,515 m and 230 m, respectively. As a result of the simulation, the expansion of the fishing gear increased buoyance, sinking force, sinking depth, surrounded area, and purse wire continuously. Recently, the maximum tension of the currently used purse wire of tuna purse seiner is 23.5 tons and is close to 25.4 tons which is the maximum lift capacity of WS454 winch. The way to improve fishing gear should be proceeded to increase sinking speed rather than expand the size of fishing gear.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.197-208
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• 2016

The WCPFC CMMs related to tropical tunas have been strongly restricting fishing capacity and operating activities of main fisheries, especially purse seine fishery. In terms of changes in fishing trend by implementing relevant measures of FAD set, the number of FAD set by Korean purse seine fleet showed a decreasing pattern with the lowest level of FAD set proportion among major distant water fishing nations. With regards to the FAD closure, there was no significant change in fishing effort but a drop in catch, especially bigeye tuna during the period of FAD closure. Moreover, it showed closely similar trends between the number of FAD set and bigeye tuna catch. In terms of measures related to the high sea area including a ban on fishing on the HSP and limitation of fishing days on the high sea by flag state, proportions of catch and effort on the high sea had sharply declined after implementing those measures. As relevant measures are expected to be strengthened, it should pay attention to change of coastal nations policies and focus on improving fishing efficiency of unassociated school set with multi-pronged efforts.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.356-363
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• 2016

To suggest more efficient fishing operation, it was analyzed using five years (2011~2015) catch data of six Korean-flagged tuna purse seiners (with 1000 mt of haul capacity) operating in the western and central Pacific Ocean. In terms of annual total catch, it presented a two-year cycle of variation on catch, showing that catches of 2012, 2014 and 2015 were high, whereas those of 2011 and 2013 were low. The proportions on fishing effort of associated set were around 21.9~30.8% having 21.5~45.0% of total catch. In this study, there was no significant difference between catches of unassociated set and associated set. When considered having good fishing conditions, fishing activities were concentrated in the areas of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Kiribati, while it showed that fishing ground spreaded out to the areas of not only PNG and Kiribati but also Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Tuvalu and Solomon islands. The average number of fishing days was 271 with a range of 246~285. As restriction on fishing operation such as reduction of fishing days and higher fishing fee are expected to strengthen, the result of this study will be helpful to select more efficient fishing methods for purse seine fishery based on fishing conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.194-204
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• 2021

The research was analyzed the catch data of the five years (2016-2020) for six joint venture company tuna purse seiners in the Atlantic Ocean, with the aim of suggesting improvement measures for responsible and sustainable fishing according to changes of recommendation by International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) on the tropical tunas. In the last five years, the average catch of six tuna purse seiner gradually increased to 7,745 tons, 8,364 tons and 9,053 tons from 2016 to 2018, but decreased to 7,761 tons in 2019 and 6,214 tons in 2020. The reason for the decrease in fishing volume in 2019 and 2020 was the fluctuation of the formation of the cold water zone (22-23℃), and the total ICCAT convention area of FAD closure in January and February due to the expansion of the FAD closure area and poor free school catching during two months period, respectively. The analysis on fishing area showed that the percentage of fishing in the high sea was about 85% although the FAD closure area included the EEZ zone in coastal countries; the rise of the fishing license in coastal countries is also believed to be a factor. In order to overcome such situations and improve catching volume, it will be possible if excellent manpower is secured, school fishing is expanded, and the production of high value-added catch (purse seine special: PS).

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.489-497
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• 2015

To reveal the spatial and temporal variability in the distribution, growth, and maturation of skipjack tuna Katsuwonus pelamis in the western tropical Pacific, we compared two El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) signals and the sea surface temperature (SST) in the main fishing area with fishery and biological data. An index of skipjack tuna distribution was calculated using Korean purse seine fishery data from 1985 to 2003. Biological data for skipjack tuna were collected monthly from Korean catches during the 1994-2003 period. The catch was more closely related to the SST in the main fishing area than to the ENSO signals. However, cross-correlated function analysis showed delayed interactions between abiotic and biotic factors. The El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ events preceded the eastward movement of the fishing center by 2-3 months. El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ had a positive effect on the skipjack tuna catch, and the change in the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) preceded the catch fluctuation by ca. 5-7 months. In addition, negative El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ effects on gonad maturation and the mean length of skipjack tuna were detected with time lags of 12 and 7 months, respectively. The length frequency indicated that the regime-specific growth pattern at each discrete period seemed to be related to the ENSO.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.197-207
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• 1996

The proportion of log-associated school catches by Korean tuna purse seiners in the western Pacific has shown a declining trend until recent years. During the period $1990\~1995$, log-associated school catches contributed $34.6\%$ to the total Korean tuna purse seine catch, representing quite a low level compared to the early phase of the purse seine fishery. Species compositions of both log-associated and free-school catches showed that skipjack, Katswonus pelamis, was dominant species and yellowfin, Thunnus albacares, followed, with the small amount of bigeye tunas, T. obesus, Yellowfin proportion was higher in free-school catches than in log-associated school catches. Log-associated school catches monitored during the scientific observation period were made of $60\%$ skipjack, $38\%$ yellowfin, and $2\%$ bigeye tunas, indicating the low skipjack and high yellowfin proportion compared with historical fisheries data based on logbooks. A total of 11 by-catch species were identified, of which sharks occurred together with tunas in all sets and yellowtail kingfish was the most abundant by-catch species. From the length distribution it was found that small yellowfin less than 70 cm mainly distributed around floating objects.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.251-261
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• 2022

Tuna purse seine fishery (TPF) constitute more than 60% of distant water fishery production in Korea based on a statistic of 2018, and 28 ships from four different companies were under operation at the western and central Pacific Ocean. On this research, common risk factors during TPF were investigated via enumeration of five years Korean fisherman's insurance payment statement, followed by some counterplans to diminish the accident rate. The accident rate of TPF on the Pacific Ocean peaked by 43.0% in 2014 and constantly decreased to 23.0% until 2018, presenting an average of 33.6%. Meanwhile, the accident rate on the Indian Ocean reached the highest point 55.1% in 2014 and declined to 11.6% in 2016, having an average of 24.7%. The average accident rate of the Indian Ocean scored 8.9% lower than the rate of the Pacific Ocean, but no statistic significance was observed. Depending on the process of operation, 'casting or hauling of net' was the most frequent part that people received an injury (40.4%). When the accidents were classified by their types, 'falling down' was the most recurrent cause of the injuries (28.5%). At the point of severity, the worst injuries were induced by crush hazard. Considering aforementioned accident frequency and severity, all the factors on the accident type list were divided into three different groups including high risk, moderate risk, and common risk. This study is expected to contribute to the reduction of occupational accidents during the work of fishermen and establishment of a safety management system for distance water fishing vessels.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.74-81
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• 2019

According to the recent presentation by the Korean Maritime Safety Tribunal, about 70% of marine accident occurs from fishing vessel, and 90% of cause of entire marine accidents attributes to human error. As fishing vessels require basic operations, fishing operations, other additional operations and techniques such as fish handling, cultivating excellent marine officer to prevent marine accident and develop industry is very important. A fisheries training ship is still very difficult to satisfy the demand for diversity of fishery training and sense of realism of the industry. As the result of employment expectation by category of business survey targeting 266 marine industry high school graduates who hope to board fishing vessels for the last four years, tuna purse seine was the highest with 132 cadets (49.6%), followed by offshore large purse seine (65 cadets, 22.4%), and tuna long line (35 cadets, 13.2%). The Korea Institute of Maritime and Fisheries Technology (KIMFT) has replaced old jigging and fish pot fishery training ships and proceeded developing and building multi-purpose fisheries training ships considering the demand of industry and the promotion of employment; however, the basic fishing method was set for a tuna purse seine. As a result of seakeeping model test, it can conduct the satisfiable operation at sea state 5, and survive at sea state 8.