Rebuilding fishery stocks in Korea: A national comprehensive approach

Korea’s coastal and offshore fisheries have experienced reduction in their catch in the early 2000. The amount of catch from coastal and offshore fisheries dropped from 1.7 million tonnes in 1986 to 1 million tonnes in 2004. To address such catch reduction, ecosystem-based fish stock rebuilding programs have been constantly developed and implemented. However, as fish stocks have been estimated to decrease since 2000 in spite of various management measures, the Korean government has begun to genuinely acknowledge the necessity to enhance fisheries productivity through the recovery of depleted fish stock. Based on such acknowledgement, a fish stock rebuilding plan (FSRP), combined with conventional fish stock enhancement programs was established in 2005.