Climate change and shifting fishing conditions are reshaping fisheries around the Korean Peninsula, with squid, once the representative catch of the East Sea, now increasingly found in the West Sea.
According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the National Institute of Fisheries Science on Monday, squid catches in the East Sea have fallen sharply over the past four decades. Annual averages dropped from 108,504 tons in the 2000s to 60,531 tons in the 2010s, and just 16,735 tons in the 2020s.
As East Sea stocks declined, squid began appearing in the West Sea from the 2000s. The species did not even rank among the top 10 catches there until the 1990s but annual catches averaged 5,381 tons in the 2000s, placing sixth, and 4,470 tons in the 2020s to rank eighth.
Sea temperature is one of the main factors behind this shift. “Even at the same latitude, the West Sea tends to have lower water temperatures due to the presence of many cold-water zones,” a Taean County official on the west coast said. Fishing practices have also played a role, with some West Sea fishermen switching from labor-intensive yellow croaker to squid, which is easier to catch and fetches higher prices.
In contrast, warm-water species such as yellowtail are steadily moving north. Yellowtail, once a minor catch in the East Sea, averaged 4,118 tons annually in the 2010s to rank seventh, and 8,479 tons in the 2020s to rank fifth.
The once abundant cold-water species have all but disappeared from Korean waters. Pollock, the top catch in the East Sea in the 1980s at 76,299 tons annually, saw its numbers fall to 10,000 tons in the 1990s and is now virtually absent. Arabesque greenling, which averaged 3,418 tons in the 1980s, has also become nearly nonexistent.
As the fishery landscape is redrawn, experts stress the need for policies to help fishermen adapt and provide greater predictability. “Although squid catches in the West Sea have increased, competition has intensified and conflicts among fishermen have grown so severe that those using different fishing methods often clash whenever they meet,” a fisheries industry insider said.
By Kang In-sun and Chang Iou-chung
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