Governor Lee Cheol-woo is seen visiting a fish farm affected by high water temperatures in Pohang on the 5th to inspect the situation on site.
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Dong-guk] Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk Province, visited aquaculture farms in the Guryongpo area of Nam-gu, Pohang City on the 5th to inspect the response to high water temperatures and discuss measures to address the recurring high water temperature issues every year.
On this day, Governor Lee toured aquaculture sites in Pohang, where aquaculture accounts for a high proportion among coastal cities and counties, and urged active measures to minimize damage from the heatwave.
In Gyeongbuk Province, there are 64 land-based aquaculture sites, 12 cage culture sites, and 5 festival-style sites, cultivating a total of 17 million fish including flatfish, olive flounder, and rockfish.
Since the 24th of last month until now, a total of 223,983 fish have died at 15 sites: 123,430 flatfish and olive flounder at 9 sites in Pohang, 12,590 olive flounder at 4 sites in Yeongdeok, and 87,963 olive flounder at 2 sites in Uljin, causing damage worth 1.518 billion KRW.
Gyeongbuk Province is minimizing damage to aquaculture farms caused by high water temperatures by encouraging early harvesting of farmed fish and providing real-time water temperature information via SNS and text messages to 1,200 fishermen and related officials. Especially this year, a budget of 3.1 billion KRW for 7 projects was supported for high water temperature response, and an additional 100 million KRW in emergency control funds from the central government was secured and distributed to cities and counties.
Governor Lee Cheol-woo said, "Please actively participate in the self-protection movement for your own farms according to the manual to minimize damage," and added, "We will expand and distribute modernization projects for aquaculture facilities such as bottom seawater intake line facilities, coolers, and abnormal water temperature warning systems to reduce damage."
The National Institute of Fisheries Science issued a 'caution' for high water temperatures along the East Coast of Gyeongbuk on the 24th of last month, and if seawater temperature remains above 28 degrees Celsius for more than three days, it will be escalated to a 'warning' and issued accordingly.
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