Seungok Lee, Gangjin County Governor, Requests Special Disaster Area Designation for Aquaculture Farms Damaged by Heavy Rain

Published 13 Jul.2021 13:40(KST)

Moon Seong-hyeok, Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Visits Heavy Rain Damage Site with Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeonnam Province

Lee Seung-ok, the mayor of Gangjin County, Moon Jeong-hyeok, the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, and Kim Young-rok, the governor of Jeollanam-do, are visiting the damage site to devise countermeasures. (Photo by Gangjin County)

[Gangjin＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-su] On the 13th, Jeonnam Gangjin-gun announced that on the 12th, Lee Seung-ok, the mayor of Gangjin-gun, Moon Seong-hyeok, Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeonnam Province, and 60 fisheries officials visited the abalone farms in Maryang-myeon, which were damaged by the heavy rain that poured for three days starting from the 3rd, to console the fishermen and prepare recovery measures.

Currently, there are 31 households engaged in abalone farming in Gangjin-gun, cultivating a total of 22.61 million abalones (9,400 racks) in a 40-hectare licensed area in sea cages. Approximately 22.61 million abalones in the marine abalone farms were damaged due to the heavy rain flooding with freshwater.

It is estimated that the freshwater discharge from the Sannae and Mandeok reclamation areas caused the seawater salinity to drop below 15‰, and the loess mixed in the freshwater blocked the abalone's breathing holes, resulting in massive deaths.

The main government proposals include ▲designation of Gangjin, Haenam, Jindo, and Jangheung as special disaster areas, including damage to crops, forest products, and livestock in the damage amount calculation criteria for special disaster area designation ▲increase in recovery support rates for some items such as vinyl greenhouses, grapes, and fruit trees (from 50% to 100%) ▲increase in restoration costs for Hanwoo and dairy cattle restocking (from 30% to 50%) ▲increase in support rates for aquaculture facilities and aquatic organisms such as abalone and flatfish (from 25?33% to 50%) ▲establishment of new standards for abalone seedling recovery costs, among others.

Mayor Lee Seung-ok said, “The current support rates for aquatic organism recovery are below average,” and added, “We will propose raising the disaster recovery rates to more than 50% of the actual transaction price and establishing compensation standards for damage to seedling cultivation farms.”

Minister Moon Seong-hyeok of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries stated, “We will make multifaceted efforts such as postponing repayment of fisheries-related loans, reducing loan interest, and supporting abalone seedling and juvenile fish to help the affected fishermen return to their livelihoods quickly.”