South Korea’s fishery productivity ranked 13th in the world with around 3.7 million tons a year. We are also ranked 12th in volume of export but ranked number 1 in consuming seafood. Despite these meaningful figures, however, the government’s interest and support is not that impressive. 

“Lack of government support aside, thoughtless and illegal catching affects the industry badly in terms of income and consolidation between fishermen. This is the point where the Korea Federation of Advanced Fisheries Leader plays an important role.” says the federation’s Tongyeong branch head Sunghoon Kim.

Tongyeong is the second largest branch of the federation with importance of the FDA approved clean sea around. The branch was opened in 1983 and changed to current name not long after. It runs 11 sub-divisions from which member fishermen are involved in catching or farming a variety of marine products such as sea squirts, clams, abalone, oyster and many kinds of fish. 

The branch is also engaging in a number of environment protection campaigns and is running training programs and promotional events includ