• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.554-562
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• 2022

Humans technological advancements have resulted in the depletion of whale resources. Accordingly, the International Whaling Commission was established to preserve whale resources and ensure the orderly development of the whaling industry. After a commercial whaling moratorium came into effect, the international trade of whale meat and related products was banned. However, There is a systematic activity through illegal remodeling ships because whales incidentally caught may be distributed in Korea and have a significant economic benefit. Although suspected illegal whaling is actively cracked down, but it is still insufficient to prevent illegal whaling and distribution. To prevent this, stereoscopic crackdowns utilizing air forces and patrol ships are effective, and it is necessary to quickly separate the captured ship and crew to prevent the destruction of evidence. For the transparent distribution of whale meat, it is necessary to advance related technologies such as whale species identification and individual identification of forensic science institutions based on whale DNA database of the National Institute of Fisheries Science. Accordingly, the Korea Coast Guard Research Center is directly conducting research on related national R&D project. To increase the efficiency of identifying whale-related evidence at crime scene, a rapid test kit that responds specifically to whale bloodstrains is developing and evidence transport packs are manufacturing and distributing, while identification technologies are also being advanced.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.419-427
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• 2009

The Minke whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, is the smallest baleen whale in the suborder Mysticeti. Because this species inhabits coastal areas, it became a main target species of coastal small-type whaling in the North Atlantic and the Northwest Pacific Oceans, and the species' population size dramatically decreased because of over-exploitation. As a result, the International Whaling Commission declared a global moratorium on whaling and launched the development of a management procedure for protecting the whales. Morphological studies, whaling history analysis, and genetic studies conducted mainly by Japanese scientists showed the existence of one unique "E" stock that inhabits the waters around the Korean peninsula and mixes with the "O" stock in the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk. We used the mitochondrial DNA control region polymorphism of 348 Minke whales bycaught or stranded in Korean waters from 30 October 1998 to 25 June 2005 to assess the whale population structure by year. The frequency of the 10 major haplotypes from the 40 identified haplotypes was not significantly different among groups, suggesting that a subpopulation was not present. A comparison of the genetic distances calculated with Tamura-Nei's method showed that the distances between groups were lower than those within groups, which suggests that there was no genetic difference in the Minke whale populations. The Fst comparison between groups and the phylogenetic tree constructed using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) and Neighbor Joining (NJ) method also detected no obvious sub-stock structure.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.475-482
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• 2019

Over 3,200 large baleen whales including 3,173 fin whales, 7 blue whales and 28 humpback whales were hunted by Japanese whaling companies in the Yellow Sea during Japanese colonial period (1916~1944). As a result, these large baleen whales are under the endangered state in the Yellow Sea. The Yellow Sea had good living conditions for large baleen whales in the water temperature ($4{\sim}26^{\circ}C$) and food supply. The whaling on the large baleen whales was carried out mainly from early winter to late spring. The possibility of large scale whaling was caused by the migration of these baleen whales from other areas for the feeding on abundances of Euphausia pacifica in the surface layer during these seasons. During summer and autumn season, the baleen whales moved to other areas (good feeding ground as Woolsan offshore waters), because Euphausia pacifica stayed below the strong themocline which was formed from June to October in the Yellow Sea.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.51-66
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• 2018

During the Joseon period, the East Sea would be called 'Gyeonghae' due to a large number of whales. In the Republic of Korea, whaling was locally permitted in 1946. However, the number drastically dropped because the hunting of the marine mammal had already been carried out in Russia, the U.S. and Japan since 1800s. Before a moratorium on commercial whaling was introduced by the International Whaling Commission(IWC) in 1986, whale populations in the East Sea had plunged. Furthermore, Korean gray whales and fin whales weren't found anymore in that area. With the suspension, whale hunting was banned in Korea as well. Even so, accidentally caught whales have been allowed to be distributed on the market with respect for local food culture. With the establishment of Whale Museum and hosting of the 57th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission(IWC) at Jangsaengpo in 2005, whale tourism was facilitated in earnest. This whale tourism has been operated by Nam-gu Office and Nam-gu City Management Corporation in Ulsan. However, the popularity of whale tourism has increased a demand for whale meat. At the same time, there has been concern over decrease in whale populations because of illegal whaling. In addition, a conflict between the use and protection of whales has caused confusion in tourism identity. Actually, there is a serious doubt on the sustainability of whale tourism due to the decade-long deficit and excessive investments. This study attempts to define a concept of whale tourism and propose a future direction for the sustainable growth and development of Korea's whale tourism industry after developing such comprehensive assessment indicators as a basic research for the introduction of sustainable whale tourism. To achieve the aim of this study, AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process) was chosen as a main research tool and the factors were ranked by a comprehensive analysis of principal factors and detail factors. The current study showed the following results. First, ecological environment(0.430) was indicated the most important factor of whale tourism assessment indicators. Moreover, Population(0.1302), Action for Cetacean protection(0.1031), Governance(0.0898) were critical factors. On the other hand, Accommodations(0.0085), Whale meat(0.0088) were unimportant factors than others.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2017.04a
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• pp.84-84
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• 2017

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.111-129
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• 2014

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the disputes concerning the 1982 moratorium on commercial whaling and the standing rights of other natural objects. Basically, the debates has arisen from the very nature of whales and other natural resources, that is to say, a mixed good of consumptive and non-use value. The debates between pro- and anti-moratorium states regarding whaling may not find out a peaceful solution without compromise or negotiation since any international institution for official settlements does not exist. If the pro-states could provide anti-states with a certain type of economic incentive which is side payments, anti-states might offer self-restraint not to whale. Here, it would be considered to apply Kaldor-Hicks compensation principles to this problem. Since 1965, some countries such as the United States and Japan began to recognize the standing right of natural objects. Even though rejected, the newt case in Korea was brought to the Supreme Court. If a standard of living increases significantly to a higher level(i.e. more than per capita income US$30,000), there would be a tendency of valuing natural objects and their beauty more and more highly.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.585-600
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• 2018

Over the last three decades, the field of American Studies has increasingly paid attention to transnational approaches in an effort to diversify and expand the field's concerns beyond the narrow sense of the nation-state in today's globalizing world. Yet, the mediation of the transnational requires a careful analysis of the nation that is still in transit. In this context, this essay examines Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick (1851) as a case study that vividly shows how reading American literature and culture through transnationalism not only offers new interpretations of canonical texts, but also helps us to better understand the historical roots and cultural contexts of contemporary issues such as global labor and migration, US citizenship and racial justice. To address the complexity of the text's circulation and reproduction, coupled with US national ideology and cultural conditions, I first turn to the canonization of Melville's Moby-Dick during the Cold War era as a national project and then explore the possibilities of transnational readings by focusing on the politics of race and global capitalism in the nineteenth century whaling industry. In doing so, I argue that critical transnationalism allows readers to keep questioning about their own understanding of race, nation, and cultural identity while remaining attentive to the destructive force of US imperialism and global capitalism in the twenty-first century.

• Ocean policy research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.183-204
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• 2018

Whaling has been banned in Republic of Korea after the declaration of the moratorium on the commercial whaling by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) since 1986. Korean government followed the moratorium immediately. However whale meat market has been kept by the bycaught whales and dolphins. So Korean government established a rule to control and trace whale meat in the market in 2011. The rule has some loopholes to allow illegally taken whale meat smuggle into the market. This study investigates the flaws in the current rule and recommend the way to overcome that defects. The first step is to prevent the entry of the illegal whale meat into the market. Minor change of the current law would be a solution. The next measure is to increase the sampling rate of the whale DNA that allowed to distribute in the market. The DNA database would be a powerful tools to identify illegal whale meat which is existing in the market. Korean government is operating three kind of food traceability systems. However, because of the legal limitations and the opposition of the non-governmental animal rights organizations, it is difficult to include whale meat to the existing systems. So the last step is to establish a new Traceability System with a state-of-the-art IT technology like as blockchain. The three measures mentioned above would increase the transparency in the whale meat market and prevent the entry of the illegal products.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.486-492
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• 2012

In the late 1970s, the National Fisheries Research & Development Institute (NFRDI) started cetacean research to submit the Korean whale catch record to the International Whaling Commission. This continued until the moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. The NFRDI resumed cetacean research with a pilot whale sighting survey in 1999. Subsequently, the NFRDI has conducted 53 cetacean sighting surveys within the Korean exclusive economic zone between 2000 and 2010. The surveys took a total of 760 days and cruising for 23,866 nautical miles. The finless porpoise Neophocaena asiaeorientalis was sighted most frequently (735 times), followed by the minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata (396 times), the long-beaked common dolphin Delphinus capensis (102 times), and the Pacific white-sided dolphin Lagenorhynchus obliquidens (27 times). Minke whales were distributed in the Yellow Sea and coastal area of the East Sea from spring to fall. Pacific white-sided dolphin sightings were restricted to the middle and upper coastal areas of the East Sea in summer. Common dolphins were sighted from east of the southern coast to the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula from spring to fall. Finless porpoise occurred in all Korean coastal areas, except the middle and upper eastern coast.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.12 no.2 s.25
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• pp.115-123
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• 2006

The policy regime of ocean is changed from ocean liberty paradigm to ocean management paradigm. Ocean resources have the characteristics of weak excludability and strong rivalry. Therefore, they need rational ocean management so as to curb the tragedy of commons. The important ocean issues and policy regimes today is ocean pollution, coastal management, sea-level rise, fishery, whaling, ocean jurisdictions, deep seabed resources, military security, piracy, ecological environmental security and so on. This paper aims at reviewing these major international ocean issues, the policy regimes for them, and the desirable tasks of ocean policy regimes in the future from the macro perspective of international ocean politics or policy-making.