• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.120-140
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• 2013

We investigated the occurrence of red tide, harmful algal blooms(HABs), at the end of 14th century until the beginning of 19th century recorded in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, which are the authentic and encyclopedic annual records of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. In total, 81 cases of HABs are recorded in the annals for which authors draw a table and maps. The number of HABs occurrence at each sea is as follows: 68 times at the South Sea; 50 times at the East Sea; and 23 times at the Yellow Sea. A region hit by red tide most frequently was Gyeongsang-do Province (over 80 times), which borders on both the South Sea and the East Sea. HABs written in the annals follow two distinctive occurrence patterns. The first pattern shows red tide started at Gangwon-do Province in March, spread north to Hamgyeongnam-do Province in April, and moved further north to Hamgyeongbuk-do Province in May and June. On the other hand, the second pattern shows red tide occurred in Gyeongsangnam-do Province in August and then expanded north to Gyeongsangbuk-do Province in September. HABs generally happened from March to September, culminating in August. Paralytic shellfish poisoning incidents involving human deaths were reported in Jinhae, Geoje and Tongyeong, occurring February to June. Fish mortality increased throughout Gyeongsang-do Province from July to September. HABs occurred on an extensive scale from 1394 to 1451 and again from 1654 to 1706. HABs also occurred on a lesser scale from 1493 to 1534 and again from 1588 to 1609. In general, vast HABs occurred in odd years (1399, 1403, 1413 and 1681).