A fishing sector assessment undertaken by the World Wide Fund for Nature in Korea concluded that of these four fisheries areas, there was a total production of 3,135,250 tonnes in 2013.

[5] The fishing industry of South Korea started to boom after rapid economic growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at a rate of 7% between the 1970s and the 2000s.

[9] Introduced and implemented on 15 March 2012, South Korea and the United States of America had signed a free trade agreement.

[10] Economic incentives of subsidy investment initiated by the South Korea government has improved cash flow for fishing fleets.

[11] Part of South Korea’s economic flow consists of the employment rate of men and women in its fishing industry.

The consumption of fish species such as yellow croaker, largehead hairtail and flatfish were more traditional, whereas since the start of the 2000s South Korea has seen a move to high-valued seafood such as King crab, salmon and shrimp.

In the same sense, the level of seafood consumption such as live fish are determined by the amount of safety prioritization the consumer holds.

The encroachment on South Korea waters by Chinese boats have caused major backlash, resulting in 4628 vessels being seized since the 2001 agreement.

Rising tensions were evident in December 2010, where two Chinese fishermen died after a South Korean Coast Guard vessel collided with their boat.

[18][19][20][21][22] Deep sea fishing vessels owned by the Seoul headquartered Sajo Oyang Corporation have documented incidents of labour abuse and breach of local New Zealand environmental regulations.

[23] South Korea has a prolonged maritime dispute with China after both states agreed to the terms set out by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

This convention sought out to regulate international waters and ensure that each state can claim a zone within 200 nautical miles of its coast.

It was argued by South Korea that for a fair and equitable agreement, the 'median line' principle was to determine who had the right to claim the overlapped area.

Through the flow of information being shared among these agencies their primary goal was to achieve effective communication and a more integrated cooperation among governmental and non-government organisations.

[25] The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced in 2019 its intention for an environmental consultation with Korea as a means to manage fishing vessels.

During the first year the program started, the government had spent 93, 644 million won, scrapping 614 fishing vessels that were deemed as not fit for purpose and resource inefficient.

[27] In a similar sense, the Korean government implemented another scheme to reduce marine debris on its coast and also offshore waters.

Its primary goal was to sustain fish population and improve ocean pollution through encouraging fishermen to bring back debris that were caught in entanglements, such as rope, net, and vinyl.