Over 20,000 Tons Collected in 3 Years: What Is the Solution for Jeju's 'Sea Lettuce' Problem?

[Anchor]

The massive proliferation of sea lettuce, a type of seaweed, in the Jeju region is now affecting coastal groundwater. While alternatives such as utilizing the overgrown sea lettuce or the sargassum drifting onto Jeju's shores have been proposed, they have not been effectively implemented.

JIBS reporter Kim Dong-eun examines the challenges ahead.

[Reporter]

The coastline has turned entirely green.

This massive bloom of sea lettuce is not a new phenomenon.

Over the past three years, more than 21,000 tons have been collected.

Various discussions have taken place to reduce these blooms, ranging from cutting down pollutants in groundwater and fish farms to modifying harbor structures, but these have not been reflected in actual policies.

[Son Young-baek / Principal Research Scientist, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) Jeju Research Center: Since the cause (of the blooms) has been identified, we need to move in a direction that eliminates those causes, but that requires various efforts...]

The same applies to sargassum, which flows into Jeju's coast in massive quantities. The annual budget for collecting these seaweeds exceeds 9 billion won.

However, most of it is discarded after collection.

While research on extracting functional ingredients from seaweed has led to the release of some prototypes, they have not been widely utilized.

This is due to the lack of standardized production facilities for ingredient extraction and the high burden on the private sector to handle the process.

This is why the Jeju Provincial Government is pushing for a project to invest 35 billion won in state and local funding to extract and supply bio-functional ingredients.

[Lee Byung-ju / Head of Marine Industry Team, Jeju Provincial Government: For companies, the cost of turning these into raw materials is too high. By providing ingredients derived from byproducts to marine bio-companies, we aim to create a virtuous cycle...]

However, the central government's investment review committee recently rejected the project.

Attention is now focused on whether the seaweed issue, which has remained limited to collection-centered responses, can be transformed into a model of resource utilization and industrialization.

(Video by Yoon In-soo, JIBS)

Reported by Kim Dong-eun, JIBS
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.