Economic benefits and management implications of reducing the harvest of juvenile mackerel in Korea

Abstract

It is essential to provide good environment for juvenile fish to grow and spawn in order to keep reproduction mechanism of fisheries resources. However, harvesting juvenile fish deprives adult fish of the opportunity to reproduce, thereby changing self-regulating renewable resources into non-renewable ones and preventing sustainable harvesting as well as reducing fishers’ income. We reviewed the catch status of Korea on juvenile mackerel and analyzed how reducing the catch ratio of juvenile mackerel may affect the spawning stock and Korean fishermen's revenue. In addition, we analyzed the problem of caching juvenile mackerel in Korean fisheries and current efforts to protect and reduce the catch ratio of juvenile mackerel in Korea. Furthermore, we suggested future efforts to protect juvenile mackerel. The result of the study showed that reducing the catch ratio of juvenile mackerel from 44.4% to 30.0% would increase fishers’ revenue by 60.6 billion KRW. We suggest the changing of purse seine fishery’s catching methods from night operation to day operation, relocation of fishing vessels to move to other fishing grounds when fishing vessels meet high density of juvenile mackerel, and consumers’ clever choice of consuming adult mackerel in order to accelerate the move toward protecting juvenile mackerel in Korea.