EU has included Korea in a preliminary list of illegal fishing nations. This is quite embarrassing for most Koreans, who take pride in their country’s status as one of the top-three deep-sea fishing nations in the world

2013-11-28 17:21

Illegal fishing nation

Following an example set by the United States, the EU has included Korea in a preliminary list of illegal fishing nations. This is quite embarrassing for most Koreans, who take pride in their country’s status as one of the top-three deep-sea fishing nations in the world, and regard illegal fishing as an issue for other countries, including China.Korean fishermen do not of course fight against local maritime police as their Chinese counterparts so, but can hardly avoid blame for helping to drain oceanic resources through excessive activity ― under the ignominious label of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, or pirate fishing.
Nothing showed this better than the response to the EU’s latest move made by the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries. Some MOF officials, while not hiding displeasure with what they regard as hasty action by Europe, tried to play down the impact. “The European officials pushed ahead with the designation, although they knew we have revised related laws and plan to implement tougher regulations from next year,” a ministry official said, stressing that it poses no immediate threat to the domestic industry.
It seems it might be the EU’s intention to hold Korean fishermen in check to help protect its own industry.
The fiercer the foreign challenge becomes, however, the harder the Korean industry should try not to assist competitors overseas and keep to international rules and standards.
For instance, it defies our understanding why the ministry has failed to obligate all deep-sea fishing boats to be equipped with vessel monitoring systems, a tracking device, and provided a reason for the EU to give Korea the disgraceful label. The ministry cites a lack of budget, but the existing subsidies to the industry are enough to install the device at 50-odd vessels lacking in it. We rather suspect that undue, and undesirable, government-industry collusion is behind the loose oversight.
Nor is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade entirely free from blame, because allowing time for the domestic industry to toughen regulations and implement them belongs to the domain of diplomacy.
However, the deep-sea fishing sector has long been criticized for three major problems ― overfishing, violation of rules and standards agreed upon globally, and human rights abuse of crewmen, especially foreigners. The time has long past for the industry to break away from these industrial remnants of bad old days and be reborn as a more advanced sector that focuses on not only short-term turnover but also on the long-term sustainability of global fishing and the biodiversity of the ocean.
That also explains the reason for the restoration of the MOF under the Park Geun-hye administration. Minister Yoon Jin-suk, the only female Cabinet member unrelated with women’s affairs, needs to bear in mind that promoting the “national dignity” is one of the key objectives of her boss and the nation’s first female president.
Being branded as an illegal fishing country certainly does not align with this objective.