Korean fish farms having difficult time due to heat waves and Japanese imports

“Last winter, we couldn't sell our fish because of Japanese imports, and eventually they died due to high temperatures. We prepared a lot of rubber buckets to put the dead fish in, but they are not enough.”

Mr. Seo in his 70s, who met at a fish farm in Cheonsu Bay, Anmyeon-eup, Taean-gun, South Chungcheong Province on August 27, sighed as he looked at a message containing “national water temperature information.” The message, sent by the National Institute of Fisheries Science, showed that the water temperature was above 29 degrees Celsius in waters across the country where high temperature warnings have been issued.

Mr. Seo, who farms more than 2 million rockfish, was busy scooping up fish that floated to the surface with seven foreign workers. Around him were dozens of rubber baskets filled with fish that had rotted beyond recognition.

Fish farms across the country have been experiencing mass fish deaths due to high temperatures caused by continuous heat waves. Fishermen's concerns are inevitably growing ahead of the Chuseok holidays.

A high temperature warning was issued for Cheonsu Bay, where Seo’s fish farm is located, on July 24, and the warning was upgraded to an alert on August 2 and continues to this day. A high temperature warning is issued when the water temperature stays above 28 degrees for more than three days.

“We're removing dead fish every day, but the amount is huge, and we're at our limit,” said Seo. ”In 2016, we also suffered from high temperatures, but the recovery was quick because it lasted only four days, but this year it has been going on for more than a month.”

It is not only a problem in the area near Cheonsu Bay that farmed fish are killed every day due to high water temperatures. According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, more than 26.5 million farmed fish have died in the country due to high water temperatures until August 27.

In South Gyeongsang Province, 17.19 million farmed fish, including Korean rockfish and black scraper, died, and the reported damage amounted to 29.17 billion won.

It exceeded the scale of damage last year (14.66 million deaths of farmed fish, damage of 20.7 billion won), which was the highest ever.

In South Jeolla Province, 4.05 million fish, including Korean rockfish, died, causing damage worth 11.67 billion won. In South Chungcheong Province, a total of 3.72 million fish died, including 3.54 million in Taean, 160,000 in Boryeong, and 20,000 in Seosan. In 32 of 90 land-based aquaculture farms on the east coast of North Gyeongsang Province, more than 1.53 million fish, including Starry flounder and Olive flounder, were also killed.

While domestic fish farmers are groaning due to damage by high water temperatures, the vacancy is filled by Japanese marine products.

According to the Korea Maritime Fisheries Institute, Korea imported 18,106 tons of seafood from Japan in the first half of this year, up 13.2 percent from the first half of last year (15,994 tons), just before the release of contaminated water from Fukushima. It is the highest since 2017 (18,399 tons) as of the first half of the year.

An official from the institute said, "The increase in imports from Japan is believed to be due to the low price of Japanese seafood due to the low yen. The increase in seafood consumption ahead of the Chuseok holidays also had an impact.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.