• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2017

Seasonal variability in algal community structure was examined at the intertidal zones of five study sites on the Taean Peninsula, on the western coast of Korea, from February 2014 to November 2015. A total of 118 species of marine algae, comprising 17 green, 24 brown and 77 red algae, were identified. The maximum number of species was observed at the Mohang site (75 species), and the minimum at the Yeonpo site (46 species). The seaweed biomass was $160.24g\;dry\;wt./m^2$ on average, and was maximal at Uihang ($519.04g\;dry\;wt./m^2$) and minimal at Yeonpo ($19.03g\;dry\;wt./m^2$). Based on biomass, the dominant seaweeds at Taean peninsula were Sargassum thunbergii and Corallina pilulifera. Community indices were as follows: richness index (R), 3.21-5.01; evenness index (J'), 0.33-0.38; and diversity index (H'), 0.90-1.12. Based on evaluation of the environmental states by the community indices, the ecological evaluation index (EEI) of Taean peninsula was "moderate". The overall species and biomass of seaweeds decreased after the oil spill. However, Hakampo previously showed a similar algal community structure. In conclusion, the algal community was temporarily affected by the oil spill, but rapidly recovered.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.145-156
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• 2014

Macrobenthic biodiversity in the rocky intertidal areas of the Tae-an region, Republic of Korea, has decreased since the Hebei Spirit oil spill in December 2007. We aimed to investigate ecological roles of Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) because recruitment and growth of oysters are critical to the recovery of damaged rocky shore ecosystem. We surveyed two sites monthly: natural rocky substrate and farming substrate, from July 2012 to January 2013 to identify and compare the changes in macrobenthic fauna. The abundance of young oysters was higher at the natural site. On the other hand, the mean height of oyster on the farming substrate was more than twice as great. The abundance of oyster at the natural site increased until October and then continuously decreased until end of study period. However, the abundance of oyster at the farming site constantly decreased from the beginning of study period. These different growth patterns might be attributable to spatial competition between oyster and a barnacle species (Balanus albicostatus) and environmental factors. At the natural site, physical stress factors including dramatic temperature changes and desiccation a few of the major factors limiting growth during aerial exposure. In addition, motile macrobenthos could be detrimental to oysters because they interrupt filter-feeding activities and hence hamper the growth of oysters. We show the higher recruitment of oysters at the natural site and healthy growth in the farming substrate are due to complicated differences in physical and biological stress factors.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.121-124
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• 2008

Tarballs formed by HEBEI SPIRIT oil spill observed in the south-western sea of Korea from December 27 2007. The tarballs were removed by the response party, which Korea Coast Guard became a center of organization. The amounts of removing tarballs form the sea and the coast were 0.345 tons and 1,739 tons, respectively. The number of persons, in order to remove the tar balls from the south-western sea of Korea, counted about 97,000 persons, including 25,000 volunteers. In this paper, we introduced the response methods of tarballs entering into the south-western sea of Korea such as a landing net, meshes and so on.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.989-992
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• 2006

The new approach to the problem of oil spill detection consisting in combined use of all available quasiconcurrent satellite information (AVHRR NOAA, TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, MODIS Terra/Aqua, QuikSCAT) is suggested. We present the results of the application of the proposed approach to the operational monitoring of seawater condition and pollution in the coastal zone of northeastern Black Sea conducted in 2006. This monitoring is based on daily receiving, processing and analysis of data different in nature (microwave radar images, optical and infrared data), resolution and surface coverage. These data allow us to retrieve information on seawater pollution, sea surface and air-sea boundary layer conditions, seawater temperature and suspended matter distributions, chlorophyll a concentration, mesoscale water dynamics, near-surface wind and surface wave fields. The focus is on coastal seawater circulation mechanisms and their impact on the evolution of pollutants.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.82-88
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• 2009

Objectives : Our objective was to examine and evaluate the psychological health of the residents of Taean during the cleanup of the Hebei Spirit(HS) oil spill and to review some factors associated with the results. Methods : A community survey of 71 men and women was conducted 8 weeks after the HS oil spill. Questionnaires used were the PWI(Psychological Well-being Index) scale for psychosocial distress, the CES-D(Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression) scale for depressive symptoms, and a questionnaire created to assess suicidal impulses. Results : The overall prevalence of high-risk psychosocial distress among the study group was 64.2%. The percentages of respondents with scores on the CES-D Scale above 16 and above 21 were 77.6% and 62.7%, respectively. The percentage of respondents categorized as having suicidal impulses was 18.3%. When compared with unexposed groups in the general population taken from various sources, the residents of Taean were 6.5 times as likely to have high stress and 9.4-9.7 times as likely to be depressed. No significant difference in the rate of suicidal impulse was found between the residents of Taean and the general population. Factors associated with high stress, depression, and suicidal impulses were age, a change in income, educational level, number of days working on the cleanup, and positive responses to questions about "affected daily activity" and "hospital visit due to work on cleanup". Conclusions : The results suggest that the HS oil spill had a significant impact on the psychological health of residents of Taean, but the comparability of the unexposed groups is a limitation of the study.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.34-39
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• 1999

Removal of spilled oil over the sea and the river has become one of the urgent problems in these days. Removing oil using mechanical devices by adhesion method is known to be closely related with the problem of estimating the thickness of film remaining on the surface of solid withdrawn from a quiescent liquid. In the present study a series of experimental results are compared with the analytic estimation for the thickness of film remaining on the solid surface using non-dimensional analysis. For the case of pure water both results show the remarkable agreement. However, discrepancy has been found for the case of Bunker C oil and diesel oil. The analytic estimation over-predicts the experimental value for the case of Bunker C oil and under-predicts it for the case of diesel oil. Further study is required to investigate the real situation including a contact angle and the property difference between oil and water.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.115-116
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• 2008

A big accident of oil spill occasionally occur in coast of Korea according to increase of sailing of oil tank ship in recently. This study was focused on transformation and behavior of spilled oil in ocean and effect of spilled oil on environment and introduce the methods of analysis of spilled oil, compensation for the damage caused by spilled oil.

• Strategy21
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• s.37
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• pp.193-241
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• 2015

China, Japan and Korea are the world's top 10 energy consumers, and so very interested in the development of seabed hydrocarbon resources in order to meet their energy demands. The East China Sea is the tri-junction area where three countries' entitlements on the maritime boundaries are overlapped. There are abundant oil reserves in the East China Sea, and therefore competitions among countries are growing to get control of them. Although these countries have concluded the bilateral agreements to jointly develop resources in the East China Sea, they do not function as well. Because joint development and management of seabed petroleum resources can lead to stable development system, and to lower possibility of legal and political disputes, the needs for joint development agreement among three countries are urgent. Meanwhile, Northeast Asian seas are semi-closed seas, which are geographically closed and vulnerable to marine pollution. Moreover there are a lot of nuclear power plants in coastal area, and seabed petroleum resources are being developed. So it is likely to occur nuclear and oil spill accidents. Fukushima nuclear disaster and Bohai Bay oil spill accident in 2011 are the cases to exhibit the potential of major marine pollution accidents in this area. It is anticipated that the risks become higher because power plants and offshore oil platforms are extending gradually. Therefore, the ways to seek the joint marine environmental protection agreement focused on regulation of nuclear power plant and offshore oil platform have to be considered. In this paper, we try to find the way to make joint development and joint environmental protection agreement in Northeast Asian seas. We concentrate on the measure to drive joint development of seabed petroleum deposits in East China Sea's overlap area, despite of maritime delimitation and territorial disputes, and we try to drive joint marine environmental protection system to respond to marine pollution and accidents due to offshore oil platform and nuclear power plants. Through these consideration, we seek solutions to deal with lack of energy, disputes of maritime territorial and boundary delimitation, and marine pollution in Northeast Asia.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.467-475
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• 2013

In order to seize quantitative materials as part of studies on measures for oil pollution prevention and control, the statistics of oil pollution incidents in Korean coastal waters for 10 years from 2003 to 2012 were analyzed with relation to the number of oil spills and the volume of oil spilt according to causes, sources and sea areas of spills. Total number and total volume of oil spills for 10 years were found to be 2,833 cases and 17,877 kL, respectively. 50.4 %(1,429 cases) of total number of oil spills were caused by negligence, although oil spillage due to negligence was 294 kL(1.7 %). While oil spillage caused by marine accidents was 17,400 kL(97.3 %), marine accidents accounted for 27.9 %(790 cases) of total number of oil spills. While negligence had a great influence on the number of oil spills, marine accidents had a huge impact on the amount of oil spilt. Fishing boats accounted for 42.7 %(1,210 cases) of the number of oil spills, and although oil tankers accounted for 9.2 %(261 cases) of the number of oil spills, oil spillage from oil tankers was 15,488kL(86.7 %). It means that oil tankers such as VLCC or ULCC may be the main sources of major oil spills and a few very large spills are responsible for a high percentage of the amount of oil spilt. While the number of oil spill incidents was closely related to the accidents of fishing boats, the volume of oil spilt was greatly affected by the major oil spill incidents of oil tankers such as M/T Hebei Spirit. The number and volume of oil spills were shown to be 1,613 cases(56.9 %) and 3,804 kL(21.3 %) in South Sea, 700 cases(24.7 %) and 13,501 kL(75.5 %) in West Sea, and 520 cases(18.2 %) and 572 kL(3.2 %) in East Sea of Korea, respectively. The highest number of oil spills was found in South Sea and the most volume of oil spilt was shown in West Sea of Korea for 10 years.

• Ocean policy research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.83-119
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• 2018

Under the Korean Marine Environment Management Act (hereunder, the KMEMA), the duty to arrange spill clean-up equipments, including spill clean-up vessels, required by the article 67 of the KMEMA is in essence the provision of public goods since it is a precautionary or preventive measure for the efficient performance of oil spill cleaning up. Also the obligation to control marine pollution and the duty to arrange of anti-pollution measures imposed on polluters is the obligation imposed by the public law in accordance with "the Polluter-Pays Principle". Therefore, the execution of such obligations shall be accompanied by the minimum legal and institutional arrangements. On the other hand, judging whether to form the roles of the public and private sectors in providing public goods is basically a matter of policy decision. However, even if the private sector is allowed to participate in the provision of public goods, it is imperative that a minimum requirement be provided to secure the public interest. Although major countries allows polluters to conclude a preliminary contract with a civil anti-pollution management company, these civilian institutions are in principle constituted by the owners of oil storage facilities. Additionally it is worth noting that it operates as a non-profit organization. In particular, if the practitioner performs pollution control for commercial purposes, their profitability may depend on the size of the pollution, the period spent on pollution control, the size of the equipment and manpower mobilized in the pollution control, and so on. Considering the above problems, caution should be taken to allow marine environmental management companies to be un-limitedly entrusted with the responsibility of arranging measures such as pollution control. In order to allow the marine environmental management contractor to be entrusted for the assignment of duty to protect the marine environment, the marine environment management business should be expanded so that the marine pollutant management capacity satisfies the statutory control capacity. For this purpose, it is necessary to manage and supervise the maintenance and improvement of the control capability of the marine environment management business. It is also necessary to discuss the introduction of the grading system for the control ability of the civil control companies alike in major countries.