A. Trawlers 



With tlie demise of the donut hole fisher>', ROK 

 distant-water trawlers are finding it difficuh to locate 

 new fisheries which are profitable. International 

 political pressure is making future access to the peanut 

 hole and Northwest Atlantic fisheries problematic. In 

 addition, rising access fees and nationalization 

 programs are also hurting the ROK trawling sector. 

 The ROK trawler fleet will probably focus on joint 

 ventures with companies in South America, such as 

 Argentina and Chile, where resources are still abundant 

 and labor is relatively cheap. 



Purse Seiners: Future expansion in this sector will 

 probably be limited to the central Pacific purse seine 

 fleet which has grown steadily over the past few years. 

 Growth in this fleet is threatened, however, by 

 increasingly strict regulation of purse seine activities by 

 the South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency. Stringent 

 regulation could result in a shift in ROK purse seine 

 effort from the central Pacific to the Indian Ocean. 



B. Squid Jiggers 



ROK squid jiggers will probably continue to be 

 active in fisheries off New Zealand and the Falkland 

 Islands, but it is clear that they are beginning to heavily 

 fish new grounds off Argentina, Peru, and Ecuador. 

 This trend toward utilizing new grounds off South 

 America should continue, and it would be no surprise 

 if the ROK followed Japan's lead and started exploring 

 jigging off Brazil. It is doubtful that there will be 

 long-terai expansion of this fleet, but a good number of 

 former driftnet vessels are expected to join the jigging 

 fleet operating off South America. 



C. Driftnet Vessels 



As mentioned above, a good proportion of former 

 ROK driftnet vessels are expected to convert to squid 

 jigging. At least half the former driftnet vessel 

 owners are expected to apply for Govenmient 

 compensation and retire their vessels. Many of the 

 driftnet vessels are old and probably could not be 

 profitably converted to any other fishing method. 



D. Distant-water Tuna Vessels 



Longliners: ROK distant-water tuna longliners face 

 increasingly severe competition from developing 

 counterparts (e.g. China, Indonesia) which, widi the 

 help of Taiwan, can deliver sashimi-grade tuna to Japan 

 at a much lower price. It is therefore doubtful that 

 there will be further expansion of the ROK longliner 

 fleet. The remaining ROK tuna longliners will 

 probably continue to focus on Pacific operations since 

 distant-water operations in the Atlantic and Indian 

 Oceans entail considerable labor and fuel costs. 



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