Gyeongbuk Province, Successful Era for High School Graduates! 'Marine Boy Project' ... First Nationwide, Realized in Fisheries Field

New Marine and Fisheries Policy Briefing in Gyeongbuk Province on the 30th

Proposed New Policies Actively Reflected in the 2023 Provincial Budget

Gyeongbuk Provincial Government Office.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Gwi-yeol] Gyeongbuk Province held the '2023 New Marine and Fisheries Policy Report Meeting' on the 30th in preparation for next year's budget formulation.

The province has established a plan to actively reflect the newly proposed provincial projects in next year's budget.

At the meeting, the 'Gyeongbuk Marine Boy Project' drew particular attention.

This project was proposed to revive the declining fishing industry due to aging and to enable high school graduate youths to achieve success in the fishing field.

It is a project where the province and cities/counties purchase idle fishing vessels and lease them to youths at a low cost for three years, create youth fishing villages to solve housing issues, and simultaneously provide mentoring programs and cultural voucher support to help them settle early.

This project, the first of its kind nationwide, has already attracted high interest from cities and counties, and interviews conducted with graduates of marine science high schools also showed a strong willingness to participate.

Additionally, the Homigot Peninsula Snorkeling Support Center received enthusiastic responses.

Until now, there were no suitable experience programs for tourists visiting the sea, but this project provides a space near Homigot's shallow sea where tourists can directly enter the sea to collect seafood, along with pre-education, related equipment rental, and shower facilities.

The province plans to pilot this project next year and expand it if the response is positive.

The 'Village Fishing Ground Experience and Sales Facility' will also be established for the first time next year.

Until now, village fishing grounds focused only on catching fish, so tourists visiting the village fishing grounds had no proper way to purchase seafood.

With this project, tourists will be able to purchase seafood and participate in hands-on processing experiences. About three locations will be piloted next year with simple sales booths and experience booths.

The 'Village Fishing Ground Fisheries Resource Guardian Project,' piloted in the second half of this year, will be fully expanded next year to cover 152 fishing villages.

This project involves deploying guards in each village fishing ground to prevent illegal harvesting of marine resources in advance.

Recently, with the nationwide increase of marine leisure enthusiasts such as skin divers and scuba divers, unauthorized harvesting of seafood within village fishing grounds has become frequent, threatening fishermen's livelihoods.

The province placed one guard for every two fishing villages for the first time nationwide in the second half of this year, and the results showed excellent effectiveness and high approval from fishermen.

In addition, many new policies were proposed at the meeting, including support for revitalizing inland aquaculture farms, development of a Gyeongbuk seafood joint brand, fostering excellent Gyeongbuk seafood star companies, and establishing a Gyeongbuk seafood upcycling commercialization center.

Gyeongbuk Province has also requested a large number of new projects in next year's national budget.

Projects such as the Yeongdeok Smart Seafood Processing Complex, Gampo Marine Leisure Complex, East Sea Blue Carbon Center, and Pohang Seafood Production Hub Distribution Center are reportedly included in the government budget plan.

Kim Seong-hak, Director of the Marine and Fisheries Bureau of the province, said, "We have discovered many projects to encourage more youths to enter the fishing industry, which has been difficult to access compared to agriculture," adding, "We will realize Governor Lee Cheol-woo’s administrative philosophy of creating many jobs where even high school graduates can live successful lives, starting from the fishing industry field."

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