Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Suspends Hairtail Fishing Ban This Year to Stabilize Food Prices

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced that it will suspend the annual July fishing ban on hairtail this year to help stabilize food prices.
The Ministry stated on Wednesday (the 24th) that the decision was made following deliberations by the Central Fisheries Coordination Committee, which held its third meeting of the year.
"Considering the recent increase in the burden of grocery costs, we have added a new suspension measure to stabilize food prices for the public," the Ministry explained. "With the temporary suspension of the hairtail fishing ban, which has been applied annually from July 1 to July 31 in waters north of 33 degrees north latitude, we expect that fresh hairtail, which sees high consumer demand during the summer, will be supplied to the market stably."
In addition, the Ministry decided to extend the suspension period for fishing bans and size limits (the body length or weight of fish species prohibited from being caught) for another year until June 30 of next year for four sectors and species. These include large purse seine (mackerel size limit), East Sea single-trawl medium-sized bottom trawling (sandfish size limit), first and second district diving operations (pen shell size limit), and offshore pot fishing (red snow crab fishing ban), which have been under suspension since March 2023.
This measure takes into account the fact that fishermen have been managing resources well on their own and the need for the stable establishment of the system.
Furthermore, through the deliberations of the Central Fisheries Coordination Committee, the Ministry selected 25 pilot projects for fishery regulation easing to be applied from next month to June of next year.
The pilot projects for easing fishery regulations are intended to verify field applicability before abolishing inefficient input regulations that do not fit the current situation.
The regulations are temporarily eased on the condition that fishermen's organizations voluntarily comply with the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and accept the government's monitoring system, such as keeping vessel position tracking devices on at all times and submitting electronic catch reports.
Major projects selected this time include easing specifications for offshore pot fishing for red snow crabs in the Gyeongbuk region (120 cm to 130 cm), allowing the bycatch of other fish for anchovy pair trawling in the Gyeongnam region (within 10% of total catch), easing mesh size specifications for coastal modified fixed-net fishing for salted shrimp in the Incheon region (25 mm to 6 mm), and easing the length of net poles for glass eel stow net fishing in the Sinan region (20 m to 35 m).
The Ministry emphasized, "With this decision, approximately 1,800 fishermen are expected to enjoy direct benefits of deregulation in their workplaces."
The Ministry plans to promote regulation easing measures that have been proven effective as formal systems through legal amendments and to prepare a direction for the overall reorganization of regulations in stages in line with the enforcement of the 'Act on the Development of Sustainable Coastal and Offshore Fisheries' in June next year.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.