[2020 National Audit] Eo Gi-gu "Water Quality Deteriorated in 6 out of 31 Marine Areas Last Year"

Assemblyman Eo Gi-gu.

[Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Among the 31 marine areas monitored last year, six locations?Cheonsuman, Geumgang Estuary, Doamman, Samcheok Osipcheon Estuary, Gangneung Namdaecheon Estuary, and Donghae Coast?showed a deterioration in seawater quality compared to the previous year.

On the 8th, Eo Gi-gu, a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, and Fisheries Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, pointed this out during the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries audit held at the National Assembly, stating, "We need to make greater efforts to establish an integrated water quality management system for estuaries where rivers and freshwater meet seawater, and marine areas where rivers flow into the sea, in order to create a clean fishing ground environment."

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries operates a marine environment monitoring network to comprehensively understand the marine environment status under the Marine Environment Management Act. The country is divided into 31 marine areas, and water quality is classified into five grades?Grade I (Very Good), Grade II (Good), Grade III (Moderate), Grade IV (Poor), and Grade V (Very Poor)?based on water quality evaluation indices measured at 425 points. Currently, coastal water quality in South Korea has improved compared to 2015 but has shown a worsening trend over the past three years. According to the water quality evaluation results from the 425 marine environment monitoring points, the number of points rated Grade I (Very Good) and Grade II (Good) decreased from 362 in 2017 to 346 last year, a reduction of 16 points, while the number of points rated Grade IV (Poor) and Grade V (Very Poor) increased from 4 to 16.

Additionally, Assemblyman Eo pointed out that harmful red tides occurred every year from 2015 to last year except for 2017, causing total damages amounting to 14.038 billion KRW and resulting in the death of 12.296 million fish and abalone.

The main areas affected by harmful red tides were primarily Jeonnam, Gyeongnam, and Gyeongbuk provinces. The duration from the initial occurrence to disappearance lasted 56 days in 2015, 14 days in 2016, 28 days in 2018, and 39 days last year.

However, the subscription rate for aquaculture disaster insurance, which compensates for damages caused by red tides, was only 39.1% of the total 9,586 eligible subscribers as of last year, representing a 5.2 percentage point decrease compared to the previous year.

Assemblyman Eo emphasized, "Rather than focusing solely on post-disaster recovery after red tide occurrences, it is necessary to develop preventive measures against the inflow of terrestrial pollutants into the ocean to prevent eutrophication, develop technologies to reduce red tide damage, and establish plans to increase the subscription rate for aquaculture disaster insurance, which serves as a compensation mechanism."

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