▲ Wangdolcho Ocean Research Station
"This is the outpost for observing and researching the ocean right in the middle of the East Sea, where human access is difficult."
On August 28, at the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) Wangdolcho Ocean Research Station in Uljin County, North Gyeongsang Province.
After a boat ride of just over an hour from Hupo Port, the massive steel structure of the Wangdolcho Ocean Research Station revealed its grand presence in the middle of the vast ocean.
Built on an underwater bedrock at a depth of 23 meters, the station was constructed by securing four foundation piles into the seabed bedrock.
The steel structure, reaching a total height of 53 meters, weighs a staggering 928 tons.
It is the first ocean research station in the East Sea and the country's fourth, following the Ieodo, Gageocho, and Socheongcho Ocean Research Stations.
Wangdolcho Station consists of five levels: a vessel berthing facility, intermediate deck (interdeck), cellar deck, main deck, and roof deck.
Stepping onto the intermediate deck after disembarking from the boat, a capsule-shaped device suspended over the ocean immediately caught the eye.
With the open sea unfolding directly beneath, the instrument ascends and descends through the water column from here to observe the underwater environment.
This instrument, which provides the closest look into the ocean depths, is a CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) profiler that measures electrical conductivity, water temperature, and depth.
A KIOST Ocean Data and Infrastructure Division head surnamed Jeong, who led the station tour, explained, "The water depth at Wangdolcho is 23 meters, and the CTD device measures water temperature and salinity as it descends to a depth of around 20 meters and comes back up."
Climbing the stairs to the cellar deck at a height of 20 meters revealed various systems that power the station, including solar power generation facilities and a desalination unit.
Surrounded entirely by the sea, the station must independently generate necessities that would be taken for granted on land, such as electricity and fresh water.
Electricity to run the observation equipment, drone stations, and internal servers is primarily generated by solar power and stored in batteries, backed by a diesel generator in case of power shortages.
"We designed the diesel generator after calculating all required power demands," Division Head Jeong said. "So far, the diesel generator has never had to run, and even with today's cloudy weather, it is not operating right now."
The water needed while researchers stay at the station is supplied through a desalination facility that processes seawater using reverse osmosis.
On one side of the cellar deck sits a small laboratory on the sea.
It is a space where seawater is pumped up to observe multiple variables—such as water temperature, salinity, fluorescence, and biogeochemistry—and conduct biological and chemical analyses.
A researcher on duty at the site explained, "Foreign substances and larger particles in the seawater are filtered out with a 200-micrometer (㎛) mesh and stored, and then provided to researchers to be used in various analyses including acidification and nutrients."
The researcher added, "Actual plankton in the water can also be checked directly on a monitor using specialized instruments rather than microscopes, and we are also developing technology to analyze plankton species using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms."
Climbing one more flight of stairs to the main deck revealed the researchers' living quarters and the observation control room.
Researchers staying at the station spend most of their time living here, descending to the lower decks when needed to deploy observation equipment or collect seawater samples.
The observation control room serves as the "brain" of the station, monitoring equipment across the facility at a glance.
Everything from the operational status of each device to real-time oceanographic and meteorological data can be checked here.
"Data such as today's wave height in meters and how the wind is blowing is displayed," Jeong explained. "We can also monitor CCTV feeds to see if the data and equipment from the station are functioning properly."
From the outside, Wangdolcho Station did not appear much different from previously built ocean research stations.
However, as a wider variety of observation equipment has been installed inside, its "eyes" for examining the sea have become substantially more sophisticated.
"What is important is that the internal systems are steadily being upgraded," Jeong said. "While observation equipment in the past centered mainly on physical oceanography instruments, we now have a vastly increased number of devices for biogeochemistry and acidification measurements."
Wangdolcho Station is crucial not merely because it is a research facility on the sea.
It serves as an outpost capable of observing long-term changes in the East Sea, where cold and warm currents converge.
KIOST plans to use the long-term observation data accumulated here to track changes in the marine ecosystem, including the subtropical transformation of the East Sea and sea desertification (barren grounds), as well as shifts in fishing grounds.
"Eyes" have also been installed to look into the ever-changing underwater environment.
Two underwater cameras attached to the station continuously monitor which fish species appear in the vicinity.
While humans previously had to review recorded video footage manually, research is now underway using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify fish species in the footage.
"With recent climate change, there are many reports of shifting fish species, such as tuna being caught along the east coast," Jeong said. "It is also possible to implement a system that sends real-time alerts whenever a new fish species is detected."
However, sufficient data to identify fish species in this marine area has not yet been fully accumulated.
"Fish information data for this sea area is still lacking," he explained. "Once more data builds up, we plan to enable the system to distinguish between existing resident species and newly arriving species."
Wangdolcho is also equipped with an artificial structure called 'ARM', which is not present at other ocean research stations.
By periodically collecting organisms inhabiting the structure, which functions like an artificial reef, researchers monitor changes in the surrounding ecosystem.
"By regularly sampling organisms attached to the reef, we can measure how the biota is changing and quantitatively assess shifts in the volume of organisms," Jeong said.
From water temperature and salinity to fish and marine biota, the observation targets vary widely, but they share a single goal:
To record the constantly changing East Sea as data and accumulate it over the long term.
The data gathered in this way will be used to detect risks to the marine ecosystem, forecast shifts in fishing grounds, and support research aimed at responding to climate change.
In addition, practical information will be provided to fishers in the Hupo and Jukbyeon areas to assist their actual fishing operations.
Jeong emphasized that data collected from the ocean research station ultimately serves as the foundation for understanding changes on Earth, the planet we inhabit.
"The science station itself is very exciting in that it is a place where we get to understand the Earth we live on," he said. "Why today's weather is like this, what tomorrow's weather will be—we predict these things with the data generated here."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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