The IUU Fishing Index is composed of 40 indicators. These indicators were grouped by state responsibilities (flag, coastal, port, and general including market) defined in the FAO IPOA-IUU (2001) and then by type into vulnerability, prevalence, and response. A total of 152 coastal nations was surveyed. Korea's total combined IUU Fishing Index was 2.49 in 2019 and 2.91 in 2021, indicating a drop in the ranking to the third worst out of 152 countries followed by China and Russia in 2021. The indicators that increased the IUU fishing risk in 2021 compared to 2019 included seven indicators of prevalence and two indicators of response while those reducing the risk included one prevalence and one response indicator. The IUU Fishing Index revealed that many fisheries observers and monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) practitioners active in the waters of RFMOs jurisdiction where Korean distant water vessels operate have mentioned concerns about the compliance with RFMO conservation measures or fishing practices. It suggested that strengthening management intervention in the fishing sector is needed. The primary tool for management is the MCS system. Given the logistical difficulty of oversight from land, air and at-sea, there is a need to enhance MCS strategies through logbook data, at-sea observer and electronic monitoring program. It also suggested that MSC fisheries certification and fisheries improvement projects, which are widely used for improving fishing sector performance, could contribute to the eradication of IUU fishing and the promotion of sustainable distant water fisheries.

Korean tuna purse seine fishery in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) began to operate in earnest in the early 1980s. Since then, the total catch has shown an increasing trend and the target species are skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacare) and bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus). Based on the operational data of Korean tuna purse seine fishery from 2016 to 2020, the catch rates of target species (skipjack and yellowfin tunas) were analyzed by operation time for set types (free school and FAD sets). In the case of the free school sets, they were usually made from sunrise to sunset, and the catch rate was high before and after sunrise for skipjack tuna and before sunset for yellowfin tuna. On the other hand, for the FAD sets, more than 90% of them were made just before sunrise, and there were few operations during the daytime. The purpose of this study is to examine whether there are differences in the catch rate of skipjack and yellowfin tunas by operation time and by school type for Korean tuna purse seine fishery in the WCPO, which could be helpful in understanding its fishing characteristics and providing useful information for developing the stock indices of the target species.

Tuna fisheries were applied to an integrated ecosystem-based fishery risk assessment method using indexes of target species status, inhabited species in a target ecosystem, habitat quality and socio-economic benefit of affected fisheries. This study suggested more effective and efficient management measures to break away from traditional management methods, such as limitation of catch and fishing effort. The results presented that the objective risk index (ORIS) on sustainability of bigeye and yellowfin tunas by purse seine fishery was estimated high due to the high catch ratio of small fishes. The ORIs of biodiversity (ORIB) and habitat quality (ORIH) of purse seine fishery were also estimated at a high level from using fish-aggregating devices (FAD). However, due to skipjack tuna’s high catches, the ORI of socio-economic benefit (ORIE) was estimated at a very low level. Due to the high bycatch rate, ORIB was high, and ORIS and ORIH were evaluated at a low level in longline fishery. Due to strengthern of fishing restrictions and increase of fishing costs, the ORIE was assessed to be very high. The ecosystem risk index (ERI) for two tuna fisheries was assessed low, but the overall FAD management by purse seine fishery is necessary at the ecosystem level.

A flexible piezoelectric energy harvester(f-PEH) that converts tiny mechanical and vibrational energy resources into electric signals without any restraints is drawing attention as a self-powered source to operate flexible electronic systems. In particular, the nanocomposites-based f-PEHs fabricated by a simple and low-cost spin-coating method show a mechanically stable and high output performance compared to only piezoelectric polymers or perovskite thin films. Here, the non-piezoelectric polymer matrix of the nanocomposite-based f-PEH is replaced by a P(VDF-TrFE) piezoelectric polymer to improve the output performance generated from the f-PEH. The piezoelectric hybrid nanocomposite is produced by distributing the perovskite PZT nanoparticles inside the piezoelectric elastomer; subsequently, the piezoelectric hybrid material is spin-coated onto a thin metal substrate to achieve a nanocomposite-based f-PEH. A fabricated energy device after a two-step poling process shows a maximum output voltage of 9.4 V and a current of 160 nA under repeated mechanical bending. Finite element analysis(FEA) simulation results support the experimental results.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the efficiency of distant-water longline fishing vessels in the Pacific Ocean and the gap in efficiencies among individual vessels. In order to estimate the efficiency, the dependent variable is set as an amount of catch and independent variables include number of crew, number of hooks, number of vessel size, and vessels engine power associated with fishing activities of distant water longline fisheries. Analytical result was shown as follows: first, the average efficiency of distant-water longline fishing vessels in the Pacific Ocean was found to be 94%. Second, the number of hooks were found to be statistically significant in each input variable and the appropriate control of the number of hooks would be expected to have a positive effect on the efficiency. Third, the relationship between the age of a vessel and the efficiency was not found statistically.

Tuna purse seine fishery in the western and central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) has been rapidly developed since early 1980s due to massive investment of major distant water fishing nations, and catch by purse seine fishery operating in the WCPO accounts for nearly half of the world’s tuna total catch. As fishing efficiency is reflected by not only improving of individual vessel’s capacity but also increasing number of active vessel, it is essential to understand vessel capacity for reliable assessment result on how fishery affects stock status of target species. In this study, fishing efficiency was analyzed by main factors which are representative of vessel capacity using fishing data and vessel information related to Korean tuna purse seine fishery operating in the western and central Pacific Ocean from 1992 to 2014. It showed that fishing efficiency of vessel tends to be higher when having larger vessel tonnage, higher engine power, lower vessel age and larger length of vessel. As for fishing efficiency by set type, CPUE of associated set with floating objects was generally higher than that of free school set, and CPUE of free school set seemed to have a greater effect on engine power and vessel age compared to other factors.

This study identified problems of the existing ecosystem-based fisheries assessment approach, and suggested new methods for scoring risk and for the estimation of fishery risk index. First, risk scores of zero to two for target and limit reference points for each indicator were replaced by those of zero to three, and the risk scores were calculated from new formulae which were developed in this study. Second, a new method for estimating fishery risk index (FRI) was developed in this study, considering the level of indicators. New method was applied to the Korean large purse seine fishery, large pair trawl fishery and drag net fishery. More precise and detailed risk scores were obtained from the new method, which can explain the risks by the wider range of both risk levels for 'better than target' and 'beyond limit'. The new method for estimating FRI could avoid the basic problem related with duplicated computations of fishery-level indicators, which improved the estimated FRI to be more accurate. Also, a method for estimating variance of FRI using the bootstrap was proposed in this study.

It was compared the estimated parameters by the surplus production from three different models, i.e., three types (Schaefer, Gulland, and Schnute) of the traditional surplus production models, a stock production model incorporating covariates (ASPIC) model and a maximum entropy (ME) model. We also evaluated the performance of models in the estimation of their parameters. The maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of small yellow croaker (Pseudosciaena polyactis) in Korean waters ranged from 35,061 metric tons (mt) by Gulland model to 44,844mt by ME model, and fishing effort at MSY (fMSY) ranged from 262,188hauls by Schnute model to 355,200hauls by ME model. The lowest root mean square error (RMSE) for small yellow croaker was obtained from the Gulland surplus production model, while the highest RMSE was from Schnute model. However, the highest coefficient of determination (R2) was from the ME model, but the ASPIC model yielded the lowest coefficient. On the other hand, the MSY of Kapenta (Limnothrissa miodon) ranged from 16,880 mt by ASPIC model to 25,373mt by ME model, and fMSY, from 94,580hauls by ASPIC model to 225,490hauls by Schnute model. In this case, both the lowest root mean square error (RMSE) and the highest coefficient of determination (R2) were obtained from the ME model, which showed relatively better fits of data to the model, indicating that the ME model is statistically more stable and robust than other models. Moreover, the ME model could provide additional ecologically useful parameters such as, biomass at MSY (BMSY), carrying capacity of the population (K), catchability coefficient (q) and the intrinsic rate of population growth (r).

We conducted experiments to compare the catch rate of bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna between circle hooks and straight shank hook in the Korean tuna longline fishery at the eastern and central Pacific Ocean from 2005 to 2007. We analyzed difference of fork length, survival and hooking location between a circle hook and a straight shank hook for both tunas, respectively. There was no difference in the mean fork length size of yellowfin tuna caught on the two type of hook but bigeye tuna was significant. In case of survival, there was no difference between two hook type, but the difference of hooking location was significant for both species. We also analyzed to find determinants of both tunas catch rate using generalized linear models (GLMs) which were used latitude, longitude, year, month, depth, hook type, bait type and so on as independent variables. Spatial factors, latitude and longitude, and temporal factors, year and month, affected catch rate of bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna. And also, depth such as a marine environment factor was influenced on catch rate.

Ecological risk assessment(ERA), developed in Australia, can be used to estimate the risk of target, bycatch and protected species from the effects of fishing using limited data for stock assessment. In this study, we employed the ERA approach to estimate risks to tunas, billfishes, sharks, sea turtles and other species by the Korean tuna longline fishery in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean using productivity and susceptibility analyses of the ERA based on low(<1.30), medium(1.30-1.84) and high risk(>1.84). Albacore, bigeye, yellowfin, skipjack and bluefin tunas were generally evaluated in the medium risk. The susceptibility of tuna species, however, had higher risks than the productivity. Billfishes were also at medium risk, while sharks were at high risk by the tuna longline fishery. The risk of productivity was generally high, because most sharks caught by the tuna longline fishery have high longevities, i.e., over 10 years, including ovoviviparous species. Susceptibility, which is related with the selection of fishing gear, was also high, because the longline fishery has no gear modifications to prevent bycatch of protected species. Not only target tuna species were influenced by the tuna longline fishery in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, but also nontarget species, such as pomfret, mackerels rays, sea turtle were done. Ecosystem-based fishery assessment tools, such as productivity and susceptibility analysis(PSA), have the ability to provide broad scientific advice to the policy makers and stakeholders.

This study standardized catch per unit effort(CPUE) of the Korean longline fishery, which has been used to assess the status of stock as an index of abundance, for bigeye and yellowfin tunas in the Indian Ocean. The Generalized Linear Model(GLM) was used to analyze the fishery data, which were catch in number and effort data collected each month from 1971 to 2007 by 5 × 5 degree of latitude and longitude. Explanatory variables for the GLM analysis were year, month, fishing area, number of hooks between floats(HBF), and environment factors. The HBF was divided into three classes while the area was divided into eight subareas. Although sea surface temperature(SST) and southern oscillation index(SOI) were considered as environmental factors, only SST was used to build a model based on statistical significance. Standardized CPUE for yellowfin tuna showed a declining trend, while nominal CPUE for the species showed an increasing trend.