금강 하구 어업의 역사성과 현안 및 발전방향

Abstract

The Geumgang Estuary Bank is seawall established between Gunsan city in Jeonbuk province and Seocheon Gun in Chungnam province for the supply of agricultural & industrial water and for the prevention of floods. Of course, after its opening, this Bank was connected with a national highway and railways for use. However, a criticism of damage on the ecosystem, namely water quality impairment, has been raised from its establishment while it is said that the project of the establishment of this Bank was enforced and promoted because the priority was given to the water supply. It has been 30 years since the establishment of the Bank and there is considerable controversy about the ecosystem, environment, and fisheries. In particular, it is a reality that the interests between the local governments of Chunbuk and Chungnam are sharply divided and one of the issues of these conflicts is the distribution of seawater. In this context, Chungnam province recently has held a series of meetings for the issues including ‘the additional establishment of a “fishway” of the Geumgang Estuary Bank for the eco-friendly development of the Geum River Estuary’. The scopes of those meetings are quite broad including the present condition of the fish inhabitants in both upstream and downstream of the bank, the present condition of use of existing fishway, the necessity of the additional establishment of the fishway and suggestions for the form of fishway. Thus, in this study, conducting a basic examination was planned by focusing on a collection of opinions on the additional establishment from the fishermen and local residents upstream and downstream of the Estuary Bank (Gunsan and Seocheon) as well as basic present conditions of fishing activities in the nearby waters of the Geumgang Estuary Bank carried out up to now. In other words, in this study, time was divided into before and after the establishment of the Bank in 1990 and the historicity of fishing activities and identify basic pending issues of various conflicts surrounding the Geumgang Estuary Bank was examined. Moreover, basic surveys of the fishermen and local residents upstream and downstream were conducted in order to examine their opinions about the additional establishment of the fishway in order to finally make a suggestion on the direction of the development so that the changes in fishing activities before and after establishment of the Bank could be examined, specifically its historicity, the long-lasting conflicts, and other pending issues. In addition, this study may cast a light on the policy on similar facilities of estuary banks and fishways established in the Nakdong River and the Yeongsan River for which improvement directions and solutions are sought. Moreover, this study may make a certain contribution in terms of various considerations on the supply, use, and control of water coupled with historical, cultural, and ecological environmental utilization of water.