Fishing pots are one of the important fishing gears in our coastal and offshore fisheries. In terms of a sustainable use of marine resources, there are concerns about the ghost fishing by lost pots. It is reported that 10 to 70% of the pots are abandoned or lost annually. This study is to compare the catching efficiency of drum type whelk pots that are made of biodegradable nets to those made of the ordinary nets, in the eastern coast of Korea. Five types of drum pots were used with combination of biodegradable nets and ordinary (PA, PE) nets applied to the main and funnel parts of the pots: pots with biodegradable nets (Bio+Bio); pots with PE net (PE+PE); pots with body and funnel made of biodegradable nets and PE nets respectively (Bio+PE); pots with body and funnel made of PE nets and PA nets respectively (PE+PA); pots with body and funnel made of PE nets and biodegradable net respectively (PE+Bio). Field experiments were conducted from June 18th, 2015 to August 7th, 2015 using a commercial fishing vessel in the Uljin waters on the eastern coast of Korea. Two fleets of pots with one hundred in each, 20 pots of each type, were casted for 8 to 15 days to analyze their catching efficiency. The catch of target species, whelks, was 202,563.0 g with catch rate of 38.7% of the total catch, while the bycatch was 320,709.7 g with the rate of 61.3% of the total catch. The catch of whelks was the highest in the Bio+PE pots (46,020.3 g), followed by the Bio+Bio pots (42,027.5 g), the PE+Bio pots (41,849.9 g) and the lowest being PE+PE pots (38,054.2 g). Compared to the conventional pots, the pots with biodegradable nets on the body or entrance part had slightly higher catch rate for both the target species and the bycatch. The PE+PE had the lowest catch rate. There is no significant difference in catch between the pots with biodegradable nets and the ordinary nets for the target species such as Buccinum opisthoplectum, Neptunea eulimata, Buccinum striatissimum. Consequently, using biodegradable nets for the conventional whelk pots can reduce ghost fishing by lost gears while keeping the performance of the pots.
Lots of fishery stocks are overexploited and the overcapacity exists in Korean fishing fleets. One of the reasons is technological development, which increases the efficiency of the vessels continuously. The analysis was conducted to identify the change of fishing power index to develop the vessel and gear technology that may have improved the fishing efficiency of the offshore large powered purse seine fishery from 1960s to 2010s. Gross tonnage and horse power per fishing vessel was increased annually. Fishing gear material was changed to the knotless webbing to settle faster. Fishing equipments was modernized and supply rate was also increased. Therefore the relative fishing power index in the offshore large powered purse seine fishery increased from 0.4 in 1970 to 1.0 in 1980, to 1.5 in 2000 and to 1.6 in 2010, but the rate of increase slowed down gradually. The results are expected to contribute to reasonable fishery stock management.
A scientific and objective sound exposure criterion for underwater sound damage on fish has been required since there has been many disputes between an underwater sound maker and a fish damage receiver. The existing criteria are still incomplete scientifically owing to a degree of variability of underwater sounds, diversity of fish hearing sensitivity and damage types, etc. This study reviews existing studies on a hearing mechanism of fish species, manmade underwater sound characteristics and sound exposure assessment parameters, and recent sound exposure criteria. A governing equation for damage coverage estimation and damage coverage dependency on sound source level, ambient noise and transmission loss are also reviewed and interpreted based on sound exposure environments. The foreign and Korean (National Environmental Dispute Medication Commission) criteria are reviewed and compared based on scientific aspects. In addition, the deficit and limit of Korean criteria are presented. The objective of this study is to give a direction for related researches and legislation of sound exposure criteria on fish.
Encircling gill net fishery is a kind of gill net which is generally used in shallow coastal waters. After the fish have been encircled by the gill net, noise stimulus such as a stone or sound is used to force them to gill or entangle themselves in the netting surrounding them. Although the fishing by a stone is a traditional fishing method, it is considered as an illegal fishing method by physical stimulus such as explosives and mechanical vibrator. However, this illegal fishing method has raised some problems to the fishing boat of other fisheries or many anglers due to disturb aggregating fish schools. This study is aimed to provide scientific base data to verify whether to impact the ecosystem caused by this encircling gill net. This study exhibited that the impulse noise by concrete sphere in the encircling gill net was 159 dB/μPa, the ambient noise from ship engine was 160 dB/μPa, and the maximum noise from continuous artificial vibrator was 175 dB/μPa. These may be stimulus to the escape of fish distributed in a wide area in its natural state; it is not likely the cause of death due to catastrophic stress. Therefore, it needs to prepare the consideration of standard limit on fishing stimulus in fishing methods of the fishery laws and regulations, prevent fishermen form using illegal fishing gear (i.e. explosive sound standards: 200~220 dB/μPa) and provide them with countermeasures.
The objective of this study was to investigate the growth rate and the optimal stocking density of sea cucumbers. Grow-out was studied in situ by conducting a follow-up survey using visible implant elastomer (VIE) tags. The rearing systems were made of polypropylene pipe for the frames and netting. The experiment ran for 70 days near Yeosu, Korea in the water depth of about 7 m. A total of 576 sea cucumbers which have three groups of body sizes (small: 5.15, medium: 12.34 and large: 23.26 g) were used. The five groups of stocking densities (150, 300, 450, 600 and 850 g/m2) in rearing system for sea cucumber were considered. Sea cucumbers were fed a mixed diet (mud, mineral, fish meal, etc.). The feed was supplied to 10% of their body wet weight once every 7 days. The survival rate (73%) of sea cucumber in 850 g/m2 was lower than those of other density groups (150 g/m2: 89%, 300 g/m2: 84%, 450 g/m2: 78% and 600 g/m2: 86%). The survival rate of medium size group was higher than those of small and large groups regardless of the density (P<0.05). Most of density groups have no significant difference except for 850 g/m2 (P>0.05). The growth rate of small size group (0.63% day-1) was higher than those of medium (0.38% day-1) and large (0.34% day-1) group regardless of the density (P<0.05). The threshold water temperature was 11.0°C for sea cucumber growth in winter season.
This study researched the population of ecological characteristics of the goldeyes rockfish Sebasetes thompsoni sampled by gill net in the Ulleungdo area from February 2013 to February 2014 in order to assess the current stock status and provide scientific advice for management implementation. The instantaneous coefficient of total mortality (Z) was 0.78/year and the survival rate (S) was 0.459. The instantaneous coefficient of natural mortality (M) was 0.461/year. Based on the estimates of Z and M, the instantaneous coefficient of fishing mortality (F) was 0.318/year. The age at first capture (tc) was 4.41/years. Current Yield-per-recruit (YPR) was 30.83 g, and fishing mortality at maximum YPR (Fmax) and fishing mortality corresponding to 10% of the maximum slope in YPR curve (F0.1) were 3.257/year and 0.673/year, respectively. F35% and F40%, indicating fishing mortalities at 35% and 40% of maximum Spawning biomass-per-recruit (SBPR), were 0.619/year and 0.509/year, respectively. Based on the biological reference points, fishing mortality at overfished threshold yield (FOTY) was calculated as 0.509/year. Current SBPR/SBPRMSY was 1.313 above 1.0, which means ‘not overfishe,’ while current F/FOTY was 0.629 below 1.0, which indicates ‘not overfishing.’ In conclusion, the current status of goldeyes rockfish was located in green zone (i.e., not overfished and not overfishing) according to the revised Kobe plot.
This study carried out and analyzed survey data on captains and mates of Korean coastal large trawlers in order to examine factors affecting body abnormalities and fatigue on bridge teams from work and environment at bridges of trawlers. The summarized result may be summed up as follows: multiple regression analysis with body pain and fatigue as dependent variables yields t-values of –2.559 (p<0.05) and –3.928 (p<0.05) respectively. From the result, environment at bridges (views, spaces and exhaust) were negative factors in affecting bridge workers’ pain and fatigue. Thus, it is determined to secure available spaces to improve the workers’ views through windows in front of, besides and rear bridge and create more pleasant atmospheric environment at bridge.
The concern on the greenhouse gas emissions is increasing globally. Especially, the greenhouse gas emission from fisheries is an important issue due to Cancun Agreements Mexico in 1992 and the Kyoto protocol in 2005. Furthermore, the Korean government has a plan to reduce the GHG emissions as 5.2% compared to the BAU in fisheries until 2020. However, the investigation on the GHG emissions from Korean fisheries has not been executed much. Therefore, the quantitative analysis of GHG emissions from Korean fishery industry is needed as the first step to find a relevant way to reduce GHG emissions from fisheries. The purpose of this research is to investigate which degree of GHG emitted from the major coastal fisheries such as coastal gillnet fishery, coastal dual purpose fishery, coastal pots fishery and coastal small scale stow net fishery. Here, we calculated the GHG emission from the fisheries using the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) method. The system boundary and input parameters for each process level are defined for LCA analysis. The fuel use coefficients of the fisheries are also calculated according to the fuel type. The GHG emissions from sea activities by the fisheries will be dealt with. Furthermore, the GHG emissions for the unit weight of fishes are also calculated with consideration to the different consuming areas. The results will be helpful to understand the circumstances of GHG emissions from Korean fisheries.
Butanol has an ability to improve the ignition quality due to its lower latent heat of vaporization; it has an advantage to reduce a volume of a fuel tank because its energy density is higher than that of ethanol. Also, butanol-diesel oil blending quality is good because butanol has an effect to prevent the phase-separation between two fuels. Even if the blended oil contains water, it can reduce the corrosion of the fuel line. Thus, it is possible to use butanol-diesel oil blended fuel in diesel engine without modification, and it may reduce the environment pollution due to NOx and particulate and the consumption of diesel oil. Therefore, some studies are being advanced whether butanol is adequate as an alternative fuel for diesel engines, and the results of the combustion and exhaust gas emission characteristics are being presented. Though the injection and spray characteristics of butanol are more important in diesel combustion, the has not yet dealt with the matter. In this study, the influence in which differences of physical properties between butanol and diesel oil may affect the injection and spray characteristics such as injection rate, penetration, spray cone angle, spray velocity and process of spray development were examined by using CRDI system, injection rate measuring device and spray visualization system. The results exhibited that the injection and macroscopic spray characteristics of two fuels were nearly the same.
In order to investigate the effect of land reclamation on the life of local fishermen, a survey was conducted with the 246 people living in 12 different adjacent villages located in Hwasung District. It was found that income of residents decreased, while the amount of debts increased after reclamation. 65% of the people surveyed answered that their economic situation became worse than before and they blamed the decrease of fishery resources as the main cause. It further led to the loss of the family’s means of livelihood. 40% of the people surveyed claimed that they wanted to leave the fishing village and believed that reclamation divested them of all their hope for the future. Regarding to the effect of reclamation project on the image of Hwasung District, most of the respondents have a negative view on the reclamation project. They have negative views even on the tourism, regional welfare, employment of community residents and local infrastructure. Therefore, it can be concluded that local community residents thought that reclamation project had negatively influenced their overall quality of life.
The feeding habits of larval (5.0~27.0 mm SL) Clupea pallasii were examined and 1,523 individuals were collected from November 2010 to March 2011 in the coastal water of Eastern Jinhae Bay, Korea. Larval C. pallasii were fed mainly on copepods that constituted 55.2% in IRI. Monogeneans were the second largest prey component, another prey items tintinnids, cladocerans and ostracoda. The results of analysis in ontogenetic changes exhibit high during the daytime, two small size classes (≤10 mm, 10~15 mm) mainly fed copepods. while the percentage of coperpods decreased, monogeneans ratio increased in 15~20 mm size class. Feeding rate in diel difference of larval C. pallasii were high during the daytime.