황해는 유엔해양법협약 제123조에서 다루는 반폐쇄해로 한국-중국-북한이 주요 연안국이다. 황해는 UN이 지정하는 66개의 광역해 양생태계 중 하나로 자원적 가치가 큰 해역이다. 동 협약 제194조에 따라 자원의 사용 및 수익에 관한 연안국의 권리행사는 국가들 간 직접적 또는 지역기구를 통한 간접적 형식의 협력을 통하여 해양환경보호 및 보전에 관한 권리의무를 이행하는 범위 내에서 이뤄져야 한다. 따라서 월경성 환경오염원의 방지대책에 대한 연안국 사이의 법적 공백은 시의성 있게 다뤄져야 할 사안이다. 이와 관련하여 황해광역해양생태계 (YSLME)는 유엔개발계획(UNDP)의 프로젝트로 2기 사업까지 진행되어왔다. 이 과정에서 황해연안생태계에 대한 한·중 공동과학조사를 통한 월경성진단분석(TDA) 그리고 TDA를 바탕으로 한 전략활동계획(SAP) 수립이라는 성과도 있었지만 북한의 참여가 보장되지 못하였고 SAP의 이행에 관한 실효성 있는 관리체제의 부재라는 한계가 있었다. 이에 본 논문에서는 제3기 YSLME 프로젝트가 나아가야 할 방향으로 연안국 간 구속력 있는 조약체결 방안에 관한 연구를 목적으로 한다. 본 연구는 기존 와덴해 삼국 지역협정 성공요소 분석을 통해 한·중·북 지역협력체의 설립과 운영에 관한 단계적 조약화 방안의 타당성을 검증하였다. 단계적 방안을 살펴보면 선행적으로 삼국 공동선언을 통한 ‘황해삼국협력 위 원회의 설립’, ‘황해삼국협력관리 협정(trilateral treaty) 체결’, 골격조약(umbrella convention)을 모(母)조약으로 하는 ‘이행협정(Implementing Arrangement) 체결’의 3단계로 구분하여 볼수 있다. 단계적 입법을 통해 민감한 정치적 변수가 발생하여도 북한의 안정적 참여 유도와 사회 전 계층의 자발적 참여를 통해 황해해양오염 방지 및 대응에 관한 조약의 지속성 및 일관성을 담보할 수 있을 것이라 기대된다.

Coastal fisheries in Korean waters have highly complexity with a variety of fishing gears, and scale of those fisheries is smaller than that of offshore fisheries. As a result, important spawning and nursery grounds for many species of fish has been destroyed. The pragmatic ecosystem-based approach was developed for the assessment of fisheries resources in Korean waters by Zhang et al. (2009; 2010). As for the species risk index (SRI), common squid caught by coastal gillnet in the Uljin region had the highest risk. As for the fisheries risk index (FRI), coastal gillnet in the Uljin coastal waters had the highest risk. For the common squid which had the highest SRI, resources management strategies must be established such as catch prohibition of length and period with TAC. For the coastal gillnet in the Uljin region which had the highest FRI, it is judged to need management plans for conserving biodiversity as reducing the catch of non-target species and discards. Also to protect existing habitat, illegal fishery should be prohibited, and fishing gears should be designed in the environmental-friendly way considering when fishing gears lost.

Changes in ecosystem risks were evaluated using the ecosystem-based fisheries assessment (EBFA) approach of Zhang et al. (2009, 2010) and the comprehensive ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) plan was made for the southern sea of Korea in this study. The risk assessment of the southern sea ecosystem was conducted by establishing ecosystem management objectives and by estimating risk scores (RS) for indicators. To conduct this analysis a number of indicators and their reference points for assessing these risk scores were developed in this study. The number of indicators in the risk analysis was 28 for the quantitative tier 1 analysis and 30 for the qualitative tier 2 analysis. The objective risk index (ORI), species risk index (SRI) and fisheries risk index (FRI) were calculated from the risk scores. Comparing the past (1988) and the current (2008) status of fisheries resources, management implications were discussed. The fishery risk index (FRI) of large purse seine fishery in the southern sea of Korea decreased substantially from 0.972 in 1988 to 0.883 in 2008, and improvement in the management of fisheries operated in the southern sea of Korea.

To investigate seasonal variation and species composition by depth layers in the deep sea ecosystem of the East Sea of Korea, bottom trawl survey was conducted at 4 depth layers during spring and autumn from 2007 to 2009. A total of 47 species were collected and were composed of 23 fish species, 9 crustacea, 6 cephalopoda and 9 gastropoda. The main dominant species at each depth layers were Chionoecetes opilio in 300m, Berryteuthis magister in 500m, Chionoecetes japonicus in 700m and 900m. In spring, richness indices (R) showed low value of 2.01 in 500m depth, and high value of 2.16 in 300m depth. Diversity indices (H') showed low value of 1.53 in 300m depth, and high value of 2.09 in 700m depth. Dominance indices (D) showed low value of 0.15 in 700m depth, and high value of 0.31 in 300m depth. In Autumn, richness indices showed low value of 1.48 in 900m depth, and high value of 2.69 in 300m depth. Diversity' indices (H') showed low value of 1.13 in 300m depth, and high value of 2.23 in 700m depth. Dominance indices (D) showed low value of 0.14 in 700m depth, and high value of 0.54 in 300m depth. In spring, similarity analysis in each depth layers showed the difference between 900m and othe depth layer, on the contrary 500m and 700m showed the similarity. In autumn, similarity analyssis in each depth layers showed the difference between 700m and other depth layers, on the contrary 300m and 500m showed the similarity.

To investigate seasonal variation of fisheries resources composition and their correlationships with environmental factors in the coastal ecosystem of the middle Yellow Sea of Korea, shrimp beam trawl were carried out for the fisheries survey. Fisheries resources of 81 species, 57 families, and 6 taxa totally were collected by shrimp beam trawl in the middle coastal ecosystem of Yellow Sea of Korea. Species were included 6 species in Bivalvia, 6 in Cephalopoda, 22 in Crustacea, 2 in Echinodermata, 5 in Gastropoda, and 40 in Pisces. Diversity indices (Shannon index, H') showed seasonal variation with low value of 2.14 in winter, and high value of 2.67 in spring. Main dominant species were Oratosquilla oratoria, Octopus ocellatus, Acanthogobius lactipes, Cynoglossus joyneri, Rapana venosa venosa, Loligo beka, Chaeturichthys stigmatias, Raja kenojei, Microstomus achne and Paralichthys olivaceus, that were occupied over 58% of total individuals, and 55% of wet weight. Fisheries organism made four coordinative seasonal groups by the principal component analysis (PCA), showing stronger seasonal variation than spatial variation. PC from PCA showed statistically significant cross-correlationships with seawater temperature, NH4-N, TP and chlorophyll a (P 〈 0.05).