[Anchor]
Coastal rocks in South Korea's maritime national parks are becoming scarred due to some irresponsible anglers.
They camp in restricted areas, littering waste and even drilling holes directly into the rocks to secure their fishing rods. Reporter Jang Seon-i investigated the scene.
[Reporter]
Off the coast of Yeosu, Jeollanam-do.
[National Park 305, departing from Info Port.]
About an hour later, a crackdown team arrived in the waters of Geumodo Island.
The boat I boarded is a patrol vessel operated by the Korea National Park Service's special judicial police.
Cruising around the coastal rocks one by one, they crack down on illegal activities taking place during fishing.
Anglers targeting black porgy and red seabream, which are currently in season, are spotted.
Stepping onto the island, the crackdown team issues a warning notice to an angler who littered.
While fishing on national park coastal rocks is not illegal in itself, fines are imposed for certain violations: 100,000 won for littering, 200,000 won for camping, and 600,000 won for smoking.
Illegal activities caught on coastal rocks have totaled 259 cases over the past three years.
More than half of them took place in restricted-access areas.
This is footage capturing a crackdown on areas where civilians are barred from entering.
[Korea National Park Service Special Judicial Police: We are not cracking down on the act of fishing itself, but rather on the act of entering uninhabited islands.]
A parasol and various cooking utensils are visible.
[We didn't really know it was a no-camping zone... (We came in) around 4:30 PM yesterday. It was just food to be warmed up so we heated it a little bit. Is that not allowed either?]
We looked around Yeondo, a small island south of Geumodo.
Various types of trash including cooksets, bottled water, and beer cans were left behind, along with "egi," artificial lures used to catch squid.
In other spots, multiple traces of holes drilled directly into the rocks to hold fishing rods remained.
[Korea National Park Service Special Judicial Police: The laws have been strengthened. The act of drilling holes itself carries much heavier penalty provisions.]
[Lee Yun-su, Head of Marine Resources Division, Dadohaehaesang National Park Office: Coastal rocks are not simply rocks; they are habitats where marine life lives. To protect those habitats, we plan to continuously carry out crackdowns.]
Driven by the crossing-the-line behaviors of some anglers who think they can just fish and leave, the coastal rocks are left covered in scars.
(Video by Yang Ji-hun | Video Editing by Kim Yun-seong | Footage provided by Korea National Park Service)
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