Jeju Island, Fukushima Contaminated Water Discharge... Full Efforts to Minimize Fishermen's Damage

Preparation of Proactive Response Manual for Radiation Monitoring, Seafood Safety, Consumption Decline Prevention, and Fishermen Protection

Kim Hee-hyun, Deputy Governor for Political Affairs, "Focusing Administrative Efforts to Ensure Residents and Fishermen Can Work with Peace of Mind"

[Jeju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Chang-won] Jeju Special Self-Governing Province has taken proactive measures to minimize damage to residents and fishermen caused by the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan into the ocean.

Jeju Province announced on the 21st that from March to November 2022, it conducted the nation’s first research project to investigate the expected damage and establish detailed response plans following the decision to discharge contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Jeju Island, Fukushima Contaminated Water Discharge... Full Effort to Minimize Fishermen's Damage
[Photo by Jeju Island]

Based on the results of the research, Jeju prepared a detailed response manual including radiation monitoring, seafood safety, consumers' right to know, prevention of consumption decline, and protection measures for fishermen, in coordination with government responses such as the Office for Government Policy Coordination and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. This year, a response budget of 11.8 billion KRW has been allocated.

Additionally, since December 1 last year, the response system for the contaminated water ocean discharge situation, previously led by the Marine and Fisheries Bureau, has been transitioned to a system overseen by the Deputy Governor for Political Affairs, strengthening a proactive crisis management system in cooperation with the government to restore trust in safety and respond to the decline in seafood consumption.

To strengthen radiation monitoring of seawater in seafood production areas, real-time seawater radiation monitoring (cesium, iodine) conducted by the Marine Research Institute’s survey vessel will be enhanced at a total of 14 survey points: 10 coastal sites around Jeju (operated by the Korea Marine Environment Corporation) and 4 offshore sites (operated by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute).

Through equipment expansion, the number of radiation tests on seafood will increase from 70 cases (aquaculture seafood + offshore caught seafood) to 200 cases, and radiation test information will be provided on the provincial government’s website from twice a month to once a week.

Efforts will also be made to restore seafood safety and consumer trust through strengthening the seafood traceability system and origin control enforcement.

Regarding measures to prevent seafood consumption decline and protect fishermen, Jeju Province will support price stabilization using a seafood consumption recovery and overseas market development budget (1.06 billion KRW) and a seafood supply-demand price stabilization fund (10 billion KRW), along with strengthening safety promotion.

Jeju Province plans to secure additional necessary budgets for responding to the Fukushima nuclear power plant contaminated water discharge through collecting fishermen’s opinions and supplementary budgets.

At the same time, Jeju will continue to urge the government to establish national-level compensation and response measures such as declaring special disaster zones, providing damage compensation direct payments, and preparing crisis response manuals, focusing all efforts on minimizing damage to the fisheries industry.

Kim Hee-hyun, Deputy Governor for Political Affairs of Jeju Province and head of the Fukushima contaminated water response headquarters, said, “We will concentrate administrative power on blocking the discharge of contaminated water and minimizing damage to fishermen through cooperation and collaboration with fisheries organizations, the provincial council, and local members of the National Assembly. We will do our best to ensure that residents and fishermen can engage in their livelihoods with peace of mind.”

Meanwhile, Jeju Province established a four-stage (interest → caution → alert → serious) response plan assuming contaminated water discharge immediately after Japan’s announcement of the Fukushima nuclear power plant contaminated water ocean discharge decision on April 13, 2021 (April 14, 2021), and has been operating a situation task force.

Jeju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Chang-won baekok@asiae.co.kr