This study was attempted to solve the problem that the current training is not consistent with the actual working environment of the fishing vessel, even though the advanced fire extinguishing training for international fishing vessels is mandatory. As a result of the survey, the lack of timely use of fire extinguishing equipment and the difficulty of organizing the fire extinguishing organization were found, and the main problems were analyzed as low understanding of fixed fire extinguishing facilities, low awareness of fire-related laws and regulations, and inefficiency of fire extinguishing training. It was found that the current Seafarers Act does not clearly define the roles and responsibilities of advanced fire extinguishers, and lacks specific standards for designated educational institutions, so there is a problem that the accuracy and reliability of the training contents with the STCW-F Convention and STCW Convention are inconsistent. In addition, it has been confirmed that the fire extinguishing organization, internal communication, and fire extinguishing training in ships, as stipulated in international agreements, are not properly reflected in the domestic curriculum. In particular, the current training consists of general contents that do not take into account the characteristics of fishing vessels, so there is a lack of practical emergency response fire extinguishing training manuals. Therefore, this study proposes the development of customized training content for fishing vessels considering the special working environment and risk factors of fishing vessels based on international agreements, and emphasizes the need for policy support, such as strengthening participation of fishing vessels in education and training, and establishing a legal basis for the operation of emergency fire extinguishing organizations.

This study aimed to enhance the operational efficiency and safety of offshore eel trap fisheries by developing six types of automated fishing equipment: a bait crusher, bait cutter, main line arranging device, trap cleaning device, eel sorting device, and fish pump system. Sea trials demonstrated that the bait crusher and bait cutter significantly reduced manual labor and processing time while maintaining bait quality. The main line arranging device improved productivity and safety by automating the sorting of looped cords. The trap cleaning device effectively removed fouling organisms using high-pressure water and rotating brushes. The eel sorting device enabled automatic size-based selection, improving resource management and operational efficiency. The fish pump system transferred eels rapidly with minimal physical damage, reducing unloading time by over 80% and decreasing labor requirements. A satisfaction survey of fishery participants confirmed that all developed devices were highly effective in reducing workload, enhancing safety, and improving operational performance. The automated equipment developed in this study is expected to contribute to the sustainable management of offshore eel trap fisheries and to offer potential applicability to other coastal and offshore fisheries.

This study examined the offshore eel trap fishing process using one year of fishing logs and fishermen’s insights to identify key operational challenges and propose equipment improvement for greater efficiency and safety. Conger eel catches varied significantly by season, depth, and temperature, peaking in winter at 85–90 m and 23°C. The western waters of Jeju Island were identified as a major fishing ground, with the highest catch recorded in November and the lowest in July, reflecting seasonal trends. Each fishing operation deployed about 10,000 traps, with an average loss of 38 traps, posing economic concerns. The process involved intensive manual labor in bait preparation, trap retrieval, catch separation, line loading, and unloading, leading to high physical demands and safety risks. To address these issues, the study proposed automation through the development of a line loading device, trap cleaning device, bait processing machine, and automatic catch separator. These innovations could reduce the labor force required by one to two workers per process, alleviate workloads, and enhance resource management. By integrating quantitative logbook analysis with field-based knowledge, this study offers practical value. Further research is recommended on automation development, cost-effectiveness, and field validation to support safer and more sustainable eel trap fisheries.

This study attempted to solve the problem that the current education does not match the actual working environment of the fishing vessel despite the mandatory lifeboat training of international fishing vessel. The survey analyzed the difficulties of using life rafts and communication facilities and found that the main problems were the launch of life rafts, lack of communication equipment proficiency, and absence of emergency training scenarios. Due to the lack of standards for designated educational institutions, the current Seafarers Act has been discovered to be a problem that the accuracy and reliability of education are not consistent with the international fishing vessel agreement and the merchant vessel agreement. Additionally, the training for retreat and emergency response as stipulated by international agreements were not properly reflected in the domestic curriculum. In particular, the current training consists of general contents without considering the characteristics of the fishing crew, and there was a lack of practical emergency response training manuals. Therefore, based on international agreements, this study proposes the development of customized training contents for fishing vessel that takes into account the special working environment and risk factors of them. In addition, it emphasizes the need for policy support, such as strengthening participation of fishing boats in education and training and establishing a legal basis for the operation of emergency life raft organizations.

This study attempted to solve the problem that the current safety education contents of Korean fishing vessels are not consistent with the STCW-F Convention and do not properly reflect the actual operating environment of the fishing vessels. Despite the reinforced duty of safety education for fishing vessels after the Ferry Sewol accident, the problem has been pointed out that the effectiveness is still low due to merchant-oriented education contents and uniform education methods. Therefore, this study compared and analyzed laws related to safety education for fishing vessels and the STCW-F Convention, and derived improvement measures by collecting voices from the field through a survey of fishing vessels. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that the current fishing vessel safety education does not take into account the reality of fishing such as fishing vessel type, navigation distance, and ship output, and that the core curriculum required by STCW-F Convention is omitted. In addition, it was found that education content on major accident types that frequently occur along the coast was also insufficient. In order to improve this, this study proposes to re-establish the target of safety education for fishing vessels based on STCW-F Convention related to fishing vessels, and to prepare a segmented education system by reorganizing the training contents to suit reality. In addition, the need to clearly distinguish the education of merchant and fishing vessels through the revision of the Seafarers Act and the Ship Employees Act was suggested, and to establish a safety education system for fishing vessels that meets STCW-F Convention and domestic conditions.

To analyse and review the fishing performance and species composition according to the size of the entrance and mesh of the pot in the southern coastal waters (Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do and Yeosu, Jeollanam-do), the experiment in this study caught one class, eight orders, 17 families, 23 species, 662 fishes, and 99,833 g. The largest number of fish species was Conger myriaster (301 fishes caught) accounting for 45.5%, followed by Octopus vulgaris (152) accounting for 23.0%, Charybdis japonica (45) accounting for 6.8%, Sebastiscus marmoratus (43) accounting for 6.5%, and Parapercis sexfasciata (42) accounting for 6.3%. Conger myriaster, Octopus vulgaris, Charybdis japonica, Sebastiscus marmoratus, and Parapercis sexfasciata accounted for 88.1% of the total catch. For other fish species, 68 fishes of 18 species were caught, accounting for 12.5% of the total. As a result of the total catch survey, the catch rate of Conger myriaster was the highest at 50.9% in B. 22 mm/280 mm. In addition, the average total length per fish increased as the entrance size increased. The weight ratios of Conger myriaster, Octopus vulgaris, and other fish species based on the total weight caught in each pots of the six species of test fishing gear are as follows. A pots 66.6%, 26.5%, 6.9%, B pots 57.2%, 24.5 %, 18.3%, C pots 43.2%, 31.5%, 25.3%, D pots 7.4%, 56.7%, 35.9%, E pots 43.6%, 0%, 56.4%, and F pots 5.0%, 79.6%, 15.4%.

This study conducted a marine experiment to improve the fishing system using miniaturized nets for anchovy boat seine to reduce the fleet size. As a result, the miniaturized net for anchovy boat seine properly opened the entrance of the bag net using the buoyancy of the flotation for position indication and the setting force of the ground rope without operating a separate fish detecting boat by attaching a large flotation at the entrances of the inside wing net and the bag net. This also enabled an operation type where the entrance of the bag net is confirmed using a flotation for position indication from a netting boat. The time and the number of people used for net casting and net hauling in the marine experiment were average of five minutes and 25-30 minutes, respectively, and 23-30 people for the existent net, while for the miniaturized large-scale net were average of three minutes and 23-25 minutes, respectively, and 19-25 people. This indicates that the operation time was shortened, the number of fish detecting boats was reduced by one boat, and the number of people for fishing work was decreased by four or five people due to the improvement of fishing operation system according to the reduction of fishing net size. As a result of measuring the shaft horsepower during net towing, the maximum net towing horsepower was 250 HP in comparison to the maximum RPM of the engine (1,200 RPM), indicating that the legal horsepower of 250 HP is enough to conduct net towing and the competitiveness of fishing using the net for anchovy boat seine is ensured through operation cost reduction.

In this study, the AHP (analytic hierarchy process) technique was used to analyze the risk of expected risk factors and fishing possibilities during gillnet fishing within the floating offshore wind farms (floating OWF). For this purpose, the risks that may occur during gillnet fishing within the floating offshore wind farms were defined as collisions, entanglements, and snags. In addition, the risk factors that cause these risks were classified into three upper risk factors and ten sub risk factors, and the three alternatives to gillnet fishing available within the floating OWF were classified and a hierarchy was established. Lastly, a survey was conducted targeting fisheries and marine experts and the response results were analyzed. As a result of the analysis, among the top risk factors, the risk was the greatest when laying fishing gear. The risk of the sub factors for each upper risk was found to be the highest at the berthing (mooring), the final hauling of fishing net, and the laying of the bottom layer net. Based on the alternatives, the average of the integrated risk rankings showed that allowing full navigation/fisheries had the highest risk. As a result of the final ranking analysis of the integrated risk, the overall ranking of allowing navigation/fisheries in areas where bottom layer nets were laid was ranked the first when moving vessels within the floating OWF was analyzed as the lowest integrated risk ranking of the 30th at the ban on navigation/fisheries. Through this, navigation was analyzed to be possible while it was analyzed that the possibility of gillnet fishing within the floating OWF was not high.

This study aims to analyze the income structure, cost structure, and profit structure based on data related to the business performance of the boat seine fishery from 1990 to 2020, and to identify the direct and indirect factors affecting fishery profitability through panel regression analysis. The main analysis results are as follows. First, it was found that fish catch has a significant amount of impact on fishery profitability, which is a key factor in improving the profitability of anchovy boat seine fishery. Second, it is necessary to develop carbon-reduced fishing gear, develop fleet-reduced fishing gear, and improve the operating system in order to increase fishery profitability for the short run. Third, it is necessary to create and maintain sustainable profitability for the long run, the continuous fishing vessels buyback program, an active responses to climate change, and the follow-up investigations about marine aggregate extraction in the south sea EEZ are needed.

This study analyzes the importance and implementation of countermeasures to reduce safety accidents that may occur during fishing in coastal gillnet fishing. Safety accidents that may occur in coastal gillnet fishing were classified into 56 measurement items in six areas: slips and trips, contact with machinery, falls, struck by object, musculoskeletal symptoms, and electrical shock. 35 fishermen belonging to coastal gillnet associations in Tongyeong and Namhae were selected as samples, and the importance and implementation of the proposed measurement items were investigated in the field. In addition, the results were evaluated visually by IPA analysis. As a result of the analysis, the importance of struck by object was the highest, and the implementation of slips and trips was the highest. On the other hand, prevention of musculoskeletal damage was found to be the lowest in both importance and implementation. The area with the most significant difference in importance and implementation by the classified area for measurement items was struck by object, and the area with the minor difference was slips and trips. Among the measurement items, the importance is highly recognized, but there are items with low implementation. To improve their level of implementation, countermeasures such as continuous education, economic support, and structural change of fishing boats should be prepared; moreover, policy support activities for implementation should be carried out.

Recently, wideband acoustic technology has been introduced and started to be used in fisheries acoustic surveys in various waters worldwide. Wideband acoustic data provides high vertical resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio and continuous frequency characteristics over a wide frequency range for species identification. In this study, the main characteristics of wideband acoustic systems were elaborated, and a general methodology for wideband acoustic data analysis was presented using data collected in frequency modulation mode for the first time in Republic of Korea. In particular, this study described the data recording method using the mission planner of the wideband autonomous acoustic system, wideband acoustic data signal processing, calibration and the wideband frequency response graph. Since wideband acoustic systems are currently installed on many training and research vessels, it is expected that the results of this study can be used as basic knowledge for fisheries acoustic research using the state-of-the-art system.

In this study, we investigated how satisfaction with on-board training had an effect on career motivation of the trainees. For this purpose, satisfaction for on-board training and career motivation were used as variables. Satisfaction for on-board training were classified into education, environment and operation, and then measurement items were composed. Career motivation consisted of career identity, career insight and career resilience. To establish and test nine hypotheses, a questionnaire survey was conducted by 57 trainees who participated in the Gyeongsang National University on-board sailing training in 2021. To analyze the questionnaire responses, frequency analysis, factor analysis, multiple regression analysis and paired sample t-test were used. As a result of factor analysis, six factors for satisfaction for on-board training were derived. Among the factors, it was analyzed that satisfaction with assignments, the satisfaction with accommodation, and the satisfaction with the adequate condition of facilities and equipment had a significant effect on career motivation. In addition, it was found that career motivation significantly increased through on-board training as a result of comparing the difference between the averages of career motivation before and after on-board training.

In this study, factors such as improvement of a fishing process and safety, reduction of the labor force and headcount and development of the automation technology for offshore (eel and crab) pot fishing vessels were analyzed. A questionnaire survey was conducted to analyze and select the key factors using independent/paired sample t-test and correlation analysis, and a living lab was operated with ship owners, skippers and experts to discuss practical needs of the site. From the result of questionnaire survey and field requirements, it was possible to understand the level of awareness of ship safety, general safety equipment, fishing work process and fishing safety equipment from the point of view of the field. In addition, there were differences in the measurement results of each items because the working environment and experience were different according to the position of the ship owner and the skipper. The results of the questionnaire survey and various perceptions of field stakeholders were reflected when analyzing the fishing system and fishing process to choose the development equipment applicable to the field. From the analysis results, the selected development equipment based on the fishing equipment and process currently in operation are pot washing device, catch separation and fish hold injection device, length limit regulations and bait ejection device after use, automatic main line winding device, bait crusher, automatic (crab) pot hauling separator and so on.

The effects on the size selectivity for Muraenesox cinereus caught by coastal longline fishery were investigated in the southern coast of Korea from June 2 to 17, 2019. Four sizes of hooks (sizes 15, 17, 18 and 19) and two sizes of bait (sizes 9.9 g and 18.3 g) were tested in seven and three fishing trials, respectively. Such results revealed that smaller hook and bait size improved capture efficiency. And our results demonstrate that there was no significant size selectivity effect for hook size (ANOVA, p>0.05), but small bait improved on catching smaller fish (ANOVA, p<0.05).