Assemblyman Seo Samsuk's Negative Assessment of Fishermen's Quality of Life and Future Prospects Compared to Farmers

"Stabilizing Fishermen's Lives Means Food Security for the Nation, Tangible Results Must Be Achieved"

Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and Related Agencies Rated Low in Effort Despite Importance

Democratic Party of Korea Assemblyman Seo Sam-seok (Yeongam·Muan·Shinan) ⓒ Asia Economy

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Seo Sam-seok, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Yeongam·Muan·Shinan), conducted a public opinion survey on marine and fisheries policies targeting fishermen nationwide ahead of the national audit, following last year, and announced the analysis and evaluation results.

The analysis showed that indicators related to fishermen's quality of life generally declined compared to last year and were rated lower than those of farmers.

Rep. Seo Sam-seok said, “There was high agreement on the Moon Jae-in administration’s marine and fisheries policy direction, stating it was important, but it must produce results that fishermen can feel. The low evaluation results are painful,” and emphasized the need for improvement, saying, “Ensuring fishermen’s livelihoods well contributes to the stability of the national food supply.”

According to the survey results, fishermen’s life satisfaction was lower than that of farmers, despite farmers’ satisfaction not being high. Farmers rated their satisfaction with residential environment at a moderate level (3.22), but fishermen rated it lower (2.97). Overall, the average for farmers (3.06) was higher than that for fishermen (3.01).

Job satisfaction showed little difference between farmers and fishermen. The main reasons for job dissatisfaction were similar to agriculture: “low income relative to effort (43.7%)” and “lack of government interest and support (29.1%).” Future outlook (on a 5-point scale) was also rated lower by fishermen (2.52) than farmers (2.71), with a higher proportion of pessimistic responses.

The evaluation of the level of coastal village life compared to urban life was higher than that of rural areas (2.10 vs. 2.32), but the evaluation of coastal village life compared to five years ago was lower than that of farmers (2.97 vs. 2.64).

The low evaluations of overall life satisfaction and living standards also reflected in the happiness index. Fishermen rated themselves 5.77 on a 10-point scale, lower than farmers (6.10), and significantly lower than the happiness index of urban residents conducted by the National Assembly Future Institute (August 19, 2021, 7.83).

Despite low evaluations of coastal village life and job satisfaction, fishermen responded that fishing would be “important in the future (17.7%)” and “continue to be important (51%),” highly valuing the importance of fisheries as a production base for essential food on the national table.

Fishermen, like farmers, highly evaluated the importance of the Moon Jae-in administration’s marine and fisheries national tasks. Over 60% rated the “importance of national tasks” as significant. However, this policy direction did not translate into responses reflecting achievements.

Among the national tasks, except for “maritime safety (3.10),” all received low evaluations below the midpoint score of 3. These were rated similarly to farmers’ evaluations of national tasks.

In particular, “marine pollution reduction,” “revitalization of fishing villages and improvement of residents’ quality of life,” and “strengthening living infrastructure and fostering successors” showed high negative evaluations ranging from 32.3% to 33.7%.

Rep. Seo Sam-seok analyzed, “Fishermen agreed with the Moon Jae-in administration’s marine and fisheries national tasks, but the evaluation shows these did not lead to tangible results that fishermen could feel,” and emphasized, “Not only the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries but also related agencies need to consider improvements in project methods and field application.”

The fishermen’s evaluation of the Moon Jae-in administration’s marine and fisheries policies (2.65) was not significantly different from farmers’ agricultural policy evaluation (2.71). Negative evaluations among fishermen reached 40.1%, while positive responses were very low at 12.6%. Like farmers, fishermen identified “income guarantee” and “minimum production cost guarantee” as the most necessary and important policies.

Fishermen also highly valued the importance of government agencies and related organizations, but rated their “level of effort” low. Cooperatives and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries were considered important with scores of 4.05 and 3.95 out of 5, respectively, but their “level of effort” was rated considerably lower at 3.57 for cooperatives and 2.98 for the Ministry.

Rep. Seo said, “Like farmers, fishermen consider income guarantee and minimum production cost guarantee as important policies, but they believe the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries is not making sufficient efforts to realize this,” and analyzed, “Continuous institutional improvements are needed to guarantee income and minimum production costs.”

According to the survey results, like farmers, fishermen evaluate government policy directions and importance but assess that tangible results felt in the field are insufficient.

Rep. Seo emphasized the importance of field-oriented policies, saying, “If agreement on the Moon Jae-in administration’s marine and fisheries policy direction does not lead to results that fishermen can feel, it is necessary to review the policy direction and understand this as a call to listen more to voices from the field.”

He also asserted, “Ultimately, to improve fishermen’s quality of life, ‘income and production cost guarantees’ are essential,” and “This means it is time to actively consider policy implementation for ‘basic income guarantee’ and ‘minimum production cost guarantee,’ which fishermen regard as important policy agendas.”

This public opinion survey was conducted with 1,110 members of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives nationwide, using a structured questionnaire proportionally allocated by region nationwide, with a 95% confidence level and a sampling error of ±3.0 percentage points.

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