Changwon Special City Takes Active Measures to Prevent Recurrence of Sardine Mass Mortality

Live Sardine Capture Commercialization and Recycling of Dead Bodies

Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam announced on the 19th that it will actively respond to prevent the recurrence of mass sardine deaths.

Recently, the National Institute of Fisheries Science under the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries forecasted that large groups of sardines will appear along the southern coast this year as they did last year, and the timing is expected to be earlier.

In response, the city has prepared countermeasures to respond immediately when the situation occurs. First, cooperation was requested to capture as many sardines as possible entering six purse seine fishing sites within the jurisdiction, and fishing is currently ongoing.

Along with this, monitoring by fishermen and others is being strengthened, an emergency contact system with related organizations is being established, coastal area patrols using fishery guidance vessels are being enhanced, and a water quality inspection system for marine environment cleanup vessels will also be established.

Changwon Special City, Gyeongnam, announced on the 19th that it will actively respond to prevent the recurrence of mass sardine deaths. The photo shows the scene of the mass sardine deaths that occurred last year.

As part of a pilot project to ease fishing regulations by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, allowing the bycatch of anchovy purse seine nets, the city plans to do its best to create income for fishermen and prevent marine environmental pollution by capturing sardines alive as much as possible and commercializing them (dried products).

The city has also prepared for cases of mass deaths. First, marine-collected sardines will be incinerated after being brought to food waste recycling facilities, and coastal-collected sardines (containing foreign substances) will be brought to resource recovery facilities for incineration. In preparation for emergencies, private waste disposal facilities have also been secured. Additionally, as a countermeasure against concerns about incineration difficulties caused by the regular maintenance shutdown of the Seongsan incineration plant, a major principle has been established to prioritize intake and processing at public facilities and use private facilities as a supplementary measure.

Earlier on the 18th, city and Gyeongnam Province fisheries officials held a meeting to seek preemptive response measures regarding the early appearance, expected increase, and deaths of sardines, and agreed to continue cooperation with related organizations.

The National Institute of Fisheries Science also plans to expand the hypoxic water mass observation system in Jinhae Bay from seven locations to nine locations (adding Masan Port and Gusan-myeon in Masanhappo-gu) by May for further investigation.

Mayor Hong Nampyo said, “I believe citizens and tourists experienced much inconvenience due to the foul odor caused by last year’s mass sardine deaths,” adding, “However, this year we will implement preemptive countermeasures, and in the event of mass sardine deaths, we will minimize inconvenience through prompt collection and disposal.”

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