NIFS announced that it released around 200,000 young sailfin sandfish into the sea over three months (Feb.-Apr.) of this year at Goseong Geojinhang Port and Ayajinhang Port, Yangyang Namaehang Port in Gangwon Province.

*Evey year between November and December, sailfin sandfish migrate to shallow waters near the coast, sometimes at depths of 10 meters or less, and spawn by attaching their egg masses to seaweed, particularly species like Sargassum. The eggs hatch around January or February of the following year. 

As the sailfin sandifsh catch* plummeted to 431 tons in 2024 from 7,462 tons in 2016, there is a growing need of stock recovery.

*Sailfin sandfish catch(tons): (‘16) 7,462 → (’19) 3,067 → (‘22) 1,409 → (’24) 431 

Under circumstances like this, the East Sea Fisheries Research institute of NIFS formed the 'task force (TF) team for sailfin sandfish stock recovery' later last year along with fishermen, local governments, and other related entities, reaching a consensus to collect eggs that are stuck in nets and discarded during the spawning season, hatch them, and then release them. 

Under the plan, the Institute made and installed the incubators located in Goseong Geojinhang Port and Ayajinhang Port, Yangyang Namaehang Port last year. In addition to the outdoor incubators, incubators were also located inside of the institute, succeeding in harvesting and hatching the eggs three times and more with the cooperation of fishermen from the Gangwon coastal gill net association. 

The eggs naturally hatched in outdoor incubators were released in the late March and 1,000 sailfin sandfish raised in indoor water tanks to around 3cm were released into the sea near Yangyang Namaehang Port in the late April. After the release, follow-up monitoring in May confirmed that all the released sailfin sandfish moved into the sea. 

Sailfin sandfish is considered as a best practice of fishermen-local government-givernment partnership for stock recovery over the past 10 years since 2006.

Among others, the East Sea Fisheries Research Institute of NIFS has the technical expertise and experience, such as around 4.6 million young sailfin sandfish* released over the four years (2010- 2013) from the outdoor incubators located in main ports of Gangwon Province.

* 300,000 fish were released in 2010, 700,000 fish in 2011, and 2.3 million fish in 2013.