"'Illegal Fishing Gear' No More Haerujil"… Gunsan Coast Guard's 'Special Crackdown'

Complete Blockage of Geobul Pumps and Deformed Hooks by Year-End

Gunsan Maritime Police Station (Chief Park Sang-wook) will conduct a special crackdown on the online production and sale of illegal fishing gear related to Haerujil from the 1st until the end of the year.

According to the Maritime Police on the 5th, recently, due to the use of illegal fishing gear and indiscriminate Haerujil, attention is needed to prevent depletion of marine resources and ecological damage as well as to prevent safety accidents, prompting the crackdown. Last year, there were a total of 6 cases caught for harvesting marine products using illegal equipment.

To protect marine resources and foster a healthy Haerujil culture, the distribution of illegal fishing gear will be blocked in advance. Internet shopping malls and secondhand trading sites that sell illegal fishing gear will be intensively monitored. Illegal fishing gear mainly includes geobul pumps (pparapong) and modified hooks (gyapeu), among others.

Last year on April 8, a person was caught using a barapong to catch peanut worms near Seonyudo Beach in Gunsan. [Photo by Gunsan Coast Guard]

To enhance the effect of the special crackdown, promotional activities will be carried out together with local governments and related organizations. Public interest will be raised regarding the problems of using illegal Haerujil fishing gear, and the use of legal gear such as cast nets, single-line fishing, tongs, hooks, and hoes will be encouraged.

According to the Fisheries Resource Management Act, it is specified that no one shall manufacture, import, store, transport, display, sell, or load fishing gear other than licensed, permitted, approved, or reported gear.

Chief Park Sang-wook said, "Indiscriminate harvesting of marine resources using illegal tools causes depletion of marine resources and great damage to local fishermen," and added, "We will do our best to crack down on and block the online sale of illegal fishing gear in cooperation with related organizations."