Aquaculture in South Korea
South Korea is a major center of aquaculture production, and the world's third largest producer of farmed algae as of 2020.
[3] Years of capturing wild fish combined with improved fishing technology have led to a continuous decrease in capture production in South Korea in recent years, and consequently led to a greater attention to aquaculture to meet the increasing demand for aquatic products.
[8][6] The brown seaweed Undaria dominates algal aquaculture production, constituting 42% of the total wet weight.
[3][6] South Korea was a pioneer of selective seaweed breeding, with government-supported research beginning in the 1980s and continuing to the present day.
In an endeavour to improve the international export price for South Korean seaweed, new systems of quality control and management were announced as being introduced in the province.
The primary species produced, including the oysters (Crassostrea gigas and Pinctada fucata), Korean mussel (Mytilus coruscus ), the sea squirt red oyas (Halocynthia roretzi), the Japanese carpet shell (Ruditapes philippinarum ), ark shells (Anadara satowi and A. broughtonii), cockles (A. granosabisenensis and A. subcrenata), Yesso scallop (Patinopecten yessoensis) and abalone (Haliotis discus hannai).
[8] The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries encouraged the industry to reduce production costs so that it can compete with foreign counterparts.
[7] There was an rise in production of high value fish species, such as olive flounder and black rockfish beginning in the 1990s and a new interest in culturing penaeid shrimp, but the increase slowed and even reversed by the mid-2010s.
[21] As of 2021, the major issues facing Korean aquaculture are eutrophication, disease, rising sea temperatures, and ocean acidification.
The increase in finfish aquaculture from the 1990s to the 2000s coincided with an rise in the incidence of harmful algal blooms in southeast Korea.
Sicknesses like red rot disease in Pyropia, Vibrio in shellfish, and parasites in fish are a major research subject in Korea due to their ability to ruin production.
[24][25] The Korean government began a project funding selective breeding of seaweeds for disease resistance and growth rate in the mid-2010s, referred to as Golden Seed.
While it is not widely practiced in Korea as yet, the first Korean IMTA farm opened in 2012 with black rockfish as the main species, and Pacific oyster, sea cucumbers, and two seaweeds as nutrient removers.
Already, a heatwave in 2016 raised sea temperatures by over 2 degrees, resulting in the loss of over 60 million cultured organisms and leaving many others more vulnerable to disease.
[28] Because the east and west coast of the country are predicted to warm faster than the south, however, it is unlikely that farms will be able to move production northwards to escape the effects of climate change.
