Opening of Yeongsan River Sluice Gates, Massive Sediment Influx Causes Widespread Damage to Sinan Fishermen

Preventing Flooding by Releasing Water Downstream Destroys the Sea... National Measures Urgently Needed

More Trash Than Catch When Nets Are Raised in the Sea

The sea in front of Amhaedo, Sinan-gun, has turned red due to the massive discharge of inland sediment freshwater.
Photo by Seunghyun Jeong

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Jeong Seunghyun] Consecutive typhoons sweeping across the Korean Peninsula have threatened the livelihoods of fishermen near Mokpo City, Jeollanam-do, due to heavy rains.

Starting with Typhoon No. 8 ‘Bavi’, followed by ‘Maysak’ on the 3rd and ‘Haishen’ on the 7th, three typhoons passed through, causing the Yeongsan River Estuary Barrage sluice gates to open several times due to heavy rainfall.

As a result, a massive amount of sediment-laden freshwater flowed into the sea, causing damage to nearby fishermen and aquaculture farms.

At 9:10 a.m. on the 7th, the water level inside the Yeongsan River Estuary Barrage rose more than 15 cm above the sea level, and from 9:10 a.m. to the gate closure at 11:21 a.m., 2,113 tons of freshwater were discharged into the sea off Mokpo.

Frequent discharges caused by consecutive typhoons have led to a large inflow of sediment-laden freshwater into the sea, lowering salinity levels and causing significant damage to nearby aquaculture farms, village fishing rights, set net fisheries, and fishing vessels.

Local fishermen said, “Although the freshwater discharge caused by the typhoons is unavoidable, it only brings sighs to fishermen whose livelihoods depend on it,” adding, “We hope it passes without any serious damage.”

In particular, fishermen in Sinan-gun, who suffer direct damage from freshwater inflow, are struggling with damage to local aquaculture farms and the inflow of hundreds of thousands of tons of inland marine debris due to not only low salinity water but also changes in high water temperatures.

A Sinan-gun official stated, “We are conducting continuous marine environment cleanup activities and marine monitoring, but the massive inflow of marine debris this year makes natural purification difficult. Local residents are rolling up their sleeves to handle the waste, but even this is insufficient,” adding, “A national strategy is needed to process millions of tons of marine debris annually.”

Park Woo-ryang, the governor of Sinan-gun, said, “Early warning monitoring is important to minimize damage to residents from natural disasters such as low salinity water,” and added, “We recognize that the inflow of marine debris is also a problem and plan to prepare multifaceted measures to maintain the clean Sinan, the ‘1004 Islands,’ together with the residents.”

Meanwhile, following record-breaking heavy rains early last month, the opening of the Yeongsan River Estuary Barrage sluice gates left the coasts of Sinan and Mokpo covered with debris. Local government officials and military personnel were deployed in large numbers to carry out cleanup activities.

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