Release of Adult Octopuses for Resource Recovery of Nakji in Sinan Islands - Second Phase

Maintaining Marine Resource Ecosystems and Opportunities for Fishermen's Income

Shinan-gun has been releasing 1,800 mated female and male octopuses into the core area designated as a National Important Fishery Heritage since the 20th. (Photo by Shinan-gun)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Ki-woon] Sinan-gun, Jeollanam-do (Governor Park Woo-ryang) announced on the 21st that it has been releasing 1,800 mated female and male octopuses into the core area designated as a National Important Fisheries Heritage since the 20th to restore octopus resources.

The county’s Jido Seondo, Jeungdo Byeongpung, and Aphae Goi and Maehwa areas, totaling 69.48㎢, have been designated as National Important Fisheries Heritage sites. To manage these, they plan to increase octopus resources by releasing egg-bearing female octopuses.

To this end, Sinan-gun’s Sinan Fisheries Research Institute conducted fertilization work by pairing one female and one male octopus for 2 to 3 days, and on the 20th, released 900 octopuses each into the village fishing grounds of Goi Island and Maehwa Island in Aphae-eup.

In the future, an additional 3,000 egg-bearing female and male octopuses will be released in core areas such as Jido-eup Seondo, Saokdo, and Jeungdo Byeongpungdo to increase octopus resources.

This project to enhance octopus productivity has received positive responses from fishing communities and fishermen, and they plan to monitor octopus resource quantities and expand octopus seed release going forward.

Sinan-gun Governor Park Woo-ryang said, “Sinan-gun’s island octopus is chewy, delicious, and highly nutritious, recognized nationwide as a distinguished food. We aim to increase fishing income through mudflat octopus fishing, support fishermen exhausted by the COVID-19 crisis, and strive to preserve traditional marine culture and protect octopus resources.”

Meanwhile, Sinan-gun plans to continue projects to preserve the National Important Fisheries Heritage, including producing videos on the traditional barehanded octopus fishing, creating easy-to-understand octopus fishing webtoons, and designating masters who have carried on the tradition of barehanded octopus fishing.

Sinan-gun produces about 200,000 octopus sets annually from approximately 1,000 households, generating fishing household income of 15 billion KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.