On March 25(Wed) to 26(Thu), NIFS had a site meeting to revitalize Jeju aquaculture industry with technical support. 

Jeju Island is a hub for olive flounder production, accounting for over 50 percent (23,000 tons a year on average) of national production, but has recently experienced difficulties of the productivity reduction due to natural disasters and increasing aquatic disease outbreaks driven by climate change including high water temperature, etc.  

Under circumstances like this, on March 25(Wed), NIFS had a meeting with people from local governments, academic sectors, Jeju Fish Farming Cooperative, etc., exchanging opinions on the major pending issues such as the status of aquaculture industry in Jeju Island, response to aquaculture disease, and aquafarms management, etc. The meeting had followed by a panel discussion, where the people heard the difficulties in aquaculture fields, exploring field-oriented measures to address the pending issues. 

On the next day, NIFS with other participants conducted inspections on the demonstration site for high-quality yellow croaker (YC) aquaculture industrialization, the research that NIFS has been pursuing for diversification of culture species in response to climate change. Then, they reached a consensus on forging a “industry-academia-research-government partnership” between industries, local governments, National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives, and universities to bolster the stable production, distribution, and processing of YC. 

NIFS president Kwon Soon-wook said, “It was very meaningful time to share the difficulties in Jeju aquaculture fields under climate change and put our heads together to find out practical measures against the issues. Going forward, NIFS will listen attentively to the feedback from the fields and reflect their voices in research and policy making for the enhancement of Jeju aquaculture industrial competitiveness.”