Longliners: The ROK tuiia longliner fleet consists 

 of longliners based at Pusan, and at foreign ports 

 around the world. The domestic-based longliners 

 target bigeye and yellowfin tuna for the Japanese 

 Sashimi market, while the foreign-based fleet focuses 

 on albacore for camiing. Data for 1992 supplied by the 

 U.S. Embassy in Seoul indicate there were 195 

 domestic-based ROK tuna longliners: 178 in the 

 Pacific, 4 in the Indian Ocean, and 13 in the Atlantic 

 Ocean. There were 53 ROK foreign-based longliners: 

 42 in the Pacific, 5 in the Indian Ocean, and 6 in the 

 Atlantic.'" 



It has been reported in Japan that there was a 

 major shift in effort by ROK longliners from the Indian 

 and Atlantic Oceans to the Pacific Ocean during 1991.'" 

 This shift is reflected in the most recent statistics from 

 the Indo-Pacific Tuna Programme and the International 

 Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas 

 which show the ROK Indian Ocean longliner fleet 

 decreased from 112 vessels in 1988 to 77 ve.ssels in 

 1990, and ROK Atlantic Ocean longliners decreased 

 from 33 in 1989 to 17 in 1990.-" 



The Forum Fisheries Agency believes that there 

 may be as many as 300 ROK longliners active in the 

 Pacific.-' The Japanese tuna industry press reports that 

 192 ROK longliners were active in the Pacific as of 

 February 1992 (an increase of 23 percent from the 167 

 vessels active in 1985), but it is believed that ROK 

 companies own approximately 80 percent of the 

 estimated 200 flag-of-convenience tuna longliners 

 fishing in the western Pacific, so the figure of 300 

 ROK longliners may be more accurate. " 



It has also been reported that fishing for albacore 

 by ROK foreign-based longliners in the south Pacific 

 was poor during the 1990/91 season. Combined with 

 low albacore prices, poor unit-of-effort catch results 

 forced the fleet to target bigeye and yellowfin tuna for 

 the Japanese sashimi market. The number of ROK 

 longliners based in Pago Pago, American Samoa (one 

 of the main tuna canning locations in the Pacific), 

 dropped from 25 longliners in 1989 to just 8 vessels in 

 1991.-' 



The Japanese fisheries press reported in 1990 that 

 the ROK tuna industry had received pennission to build 

 36 tuna longliners. Of this total, 26 were to be 

 exported, and 10 were to be added to the domestic 

 fleet. Oversupply on the Japanese sashimi market and 



increased competition from Taiwan longliners resulted 

 in weakened interest for increased investment in new 

 ROK tuna longliners. As a result, only 5 of the 26 

 longliners for export markets and 2 of tlie 10 longliners 

 for the domestic market were actually built.-'' The 

 situation in 1993 appears to be even more bleak with 

 reports of additional ROK distant-water tuna vessels 

 tied up in the port of Pusan, no longer able to compete 

 with rival fleets, particularly the Taiwan fleet.-'' 



Purse Seiners: There were 32 ROK tuna purse 

 seiners active in the central western Pacific during 

 1991. Purse seining operations take place off the 

 northern coast of Papua New Guinea and the catch is 

 composed primarily of yellowfin tuna with the 

 remainder consisting largely of skipjack. South Pacific 

 Commission data indicates that the ROK purse seining 

 fleet, although smaller in number than the U.S. and 

 Taiwan fleets, was able to catch more fish than any 

 other country in 1991 (243,000 t). The .success of the 

 ROK fleet is attributed to efficient at-sea transshipment 

 operations which enable ROK vessels to avoid stopping 

 in local ports and thereby increase the amount of time 

 devoted to catch operations.-^ 



With the concentration of distant-water purse seine 

 effort in the central western Pacific, many Pacific 

 Island nations have become concerned about possible 

 overfishing. In October 1992, eight members of the 

 South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) known as 

 the "Nauru Group" (Federated States of Micronesia, 

 Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New 

 Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu) signed an 

 agreement which places a limit on the number of 

 distant-water purse seine vessels fishing in the central 

 and western Pacific. The vessels in this fishery mainly 

 target skipjack and yellowfin tuna and account for the 

 majority of catch in the South Pacific. The signatories 

 justified the need for a limit by noting the rapid 

 capitalization of this fishery and its possible detrimental 

 effects on tuna stocks.'' 



As is the case with its Taiwan and Japanese 

 competitors, ROK tuna fleets face an acute shortage of 

 domestic labor. Although Goverimient statistics 

 indicate the number of distant-water fishery workers 

 has been fluctuating since 1986 (appendix K), it is 

 reasonable to assume that a downward trend similar to 

 Japan should take hold since fewer and fewer young 

 Koreans are interested in working in distant-water 

 fishing operations. 



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