Korea's aquaculture takes full blow of climate change
Workers haul dead farmed fish ashore near Dara Port in Sanyang-eup, Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Park Eun-kyung
Soaring sea temperatures during record heat wave leave fish farms reeling from mounting losses
I’ve been farming fish for 38 years, but with sea temperatures rising each year and losses snowballing like this, I don’t know how we’re going to hold on.
A putrid stench blanketed the area as about a dozen fishing boats docked one by one at Dara Port in Sanyang-eup, Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province.
Every deck was piled high with dead fish. Most were cold-water species, such as Korean rockfish and grey mullet, but there were also considerable numbers of warm-water fish, including filefish.
Groups of three or four men boarded the boats and shoveled the carcasses into an excavator bucket to be hauled ashore. Despite their nonstop work, it took more than half an hour to empty a single boat of dead fish.
“This is the sixth boatload of dead fish from our farm alone today. More than 30 percent of the fish at our one-hectare cage farm have died, and we’ve already lost more than 500 million won ($371,500),” said one fish farmer with resignation as he watched the carcasses being unloaded.
“I’ve been farming fish for 38 years, but with sea temperatures rising each year and losses snowballing like this, I don’t know how we’re going to hold on.”
A fish farmer inspects dead fish piled aboard a docked boat near Dara Port in Sanyang-eup, Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Park Eun-kyung
13.53 million fish dead due to rising sea temperatures
Soaring sea temperatures during this year’s record heat wave have left fish farms reeling from mounting losses. High water temperature alerts, first issued off South Gyeongsang Province’s southern coast on July 16 before expanding nationwide, have remained in effect for 57 consecutive days and have only recently been downgraded in some areas as air temperatures have begun to ease.
The damage has prompted calls for an urgent overhaul of aquaculture production, including developing varieties more resilient to temperature changes and adopting new farming methods.
South Gyeongsang provincial authorities said they received reports of 12,000 fish, including mullet and Korean rockfish, and 140 ropes of farmed sea squirts dying that day alone. Cumulative losses in the province now stand at 7.691 million fish and abalone, along with 2,729 ropes of sea squirts.
The nationwide toll is also severe. Preliminary figures from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, provided to Rep. Moon Dae-lim of the Democratic Party of Korea, show that high water temperatures had killed 13.533 million farmed fish at 455 fish farms nationwide as of Sept. 4.
Over the past five years, including this year, high water temperatures have killed a total of 125.048 million farmed fish, causing losses of 205.56 billion won.
Boats loaded with dead farmed fish line up near Dara Port in Sanyang-eup, Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Park Eun-kyung
High water temperature alerts last twice as long as four years ago
High water temperatures are becoming an increasingly serious problem. The average water temperature in the seas around the Korean Peninsula reached 28.56 degrees Celsius from Aug. 1-7, the highest recorded temperature for that period since 2000.
High water temperature alerts are also lasting longer, stretching from 43 days in 2021 to 85 days last year.
“This year’s alerts began later than last year’s, but the time it took to escalate from preliminary alerts to advisories and warnings was actually shorter,” said Kim Hyung-chul, a climate change research officer at the National Institute of Fisheries Science. “As heat waves intensify, seawater temperatures seem to be rising at an increasingly rapid pace.”
Despite recurring and mounting losses, the response remains focused on compensation after the damage is done, and even that support is insufficient. Government disaster relief is capped at 50 million won per fish-farming household.
Aquaculture disaster insurance is another option, but enrollment remains at around 40 percent. Premiums run into tens of millions of won, and policies expire after one year with no refund of premiums if no claim is made.
An excavator operator transfers dead farmed fish ashore near Dara Port in Sanyang-eup, Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Park Eun-kyung
Calls to overhaul aquaculture production
Experts point to the need to restructure aquaculture production itself to adapt to climate change, instead of relying on compensation after losses occur. Proposed measures include digital breeding, which uses genetic data to select and breed fish that tolerate higher temperatures; vertical aquaculture, which makes use of cooler waters more than 30 meters below the surface; and a switch to subtropical species.
“Until now, aquaculture has focused on reliably producing particular species. But we now need to rethink which species to raise, and where and how, to adapt to changing conditions at sea,” said Jung Yoon-hwan, head of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology’s Tongyeong offshore testing station.
“With aging fishing communities and high up-front costs slowing change on the ground, the government and private sector need to invest more proactively to safeguard food security,” he said.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.