• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.173-180
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• 2009

After the UN General Assembly on 2006, Interest on the marine litter has rapidly increased internationally. The UN sub-organizations, UNEP/Regional Seas, FAO(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and OC(Ocean Conservancy) as a one of world NGO had been tackled to collect information and prepared world reports related on marine litter, recently, those are published. Through the 10years experience of Korea's policy on marine litter since 1999, it is re-evaluated as a roll model internationally. In this paper, brief introduction of structure and function of Korea's authorities which are responsible for or are involved in the marine litter issue as well as the National Marine Litter Management Basic Plan which is established in 2008, has been provided. This paper also included the structure and roll of the marine litter initiative center in the plan. Change of the paradigm of action plan on marine litter in Korea already had been started.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.408-418
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• 2022

Marine accidents involving the entanglement of marine litter have continued to increase, with over 300 to 400 cases per year according to the statistical agency. Entanglement of marine litter may also lead to large-scale marine accidents which cause capsizing and sinking, thereby further causing detrimental casualties and material damages, and thus exceptional attention and care are required. In this study, Incheon, Busan, and Geoje and Tongyeong were found to be the high-frequency locations for accidents, which were selected by considering the ArcGIS analysis about the marine accidents of entanglement of marine litter and the occurrence frequency by the standard. The characteristics of the multiple accident areas involving entanglement of marine litter were the coastal cities where fishing facilities or marine leisure related conditions were activated, with the port which handles much of the traffic of outbound and inbound vessels located nearby. Marine plastic pollution impacts not only the marine ecosystem and food chain, but also the hull and engine of ships, and may further pose threats to the safety of vessels and crews. It is necessary to find a common link between the relevant areas and to strive to remove the root causes of marine accidents by reducing marine litter.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.967-976
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• 2021

Over the last ten years, the number of entanglement marine accidents has increased more than other accident types. This study analyzed the annual statistical report of marine accidents from the Korea Maritime Safety Tribunal and Korea Coast Guard. Despite some discrepancies between data of the two organizations, it was found that marine accidents involving fishing vessels were more prevalent than those involving non-fishing vessels. In addition, the main floating materials that caused wounded entanglement accidents were fishing nets, fishing gear, and ropes, and the proportion of them was high. Foreign and domestic policies on marine plastics recognize most marine plastics as marine environmental hazards and focus on marine litter recovery and the prevention of marine pollution. The representative Acts related to the marine environment and marine litter, the Marine Environment Management Act and the Marine Waste and Sediments Management Act, recognize marine litter as a type of marine waste, and deal with the types and definition of this waste. However, clearly defining marine waste is difficult. Therefore, this study tried to examine the relevant legal system of marine litter on ship operation and suggested improvement measures. Moreover, the definition of marine litter for the safe navigation and operation of ships was clearly proposed.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.43-57
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• 2012

According to the result of the recent survey on the current condition of loss of the fishing gears in the East, West and South seas, it is estimated that 50% of the fishing gears used for coastal trap and gill net fisheries are lost every year and 20~30% of those used for inshore trap and gill net fisheries are lost. It is reported that such loss of fishing gears leads to the loss of about 10% of 1.7M tons of the total annual catch from the gill nets and traps along the country's coasts and shores, which amounts to 15~170K tons. Submerged marine litters that have recently been accumulated because of the washed out or lost fishing gears significantly affect the development of fisheries resources as well as the natural environment. The purpose of this study is to identify the damages that the ever-increasing submerged marine litters of washed out fishing gears would have on the fishery and to analyze the effects of the coastal and inshore submerged marine litter collection business on the fishery management. For this, the economic analysis was carried out for the coastal and inshore submerged marine litter collection business based on the fishermen's expenses and earnings and their catch. The result of the analysis shows that the submerged marine litter collection business is quite effective in certain areas but rarely effective in other areas. However, taking into consideration that the litter collection would contribute to protecting the marine environment as well as the fisheries resources, it is expected to have a significant impact on the protection of the marine environment even in those areas where it is not effective for the protection of the fisheries resources.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.54-65
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• 2012

While fishery has been continuously suffering from deteriorating economic feasibility, the amount of the deposited marine litter has been increasing due to an increased number of marine leisure tourists which are caused by an improved quality of life and five-day work week. In addition, the fishery area has been reduced by the reclamation projects and it is being destroyed by marine pollution with a variety of contaminants coming from land and sea. To protect and improve fisheries in these poor conditions, Korean governments have implemented the submerged marine litter collection projects. However, previous research results on the marine environment and resources indicate that it requires a lot of time investment to achieve tangible results of such improvement. The 300 billion won marine environment and resource investigation project has been executed since July 2004 by Korean governments, which demands strategic approaches to obtain more effective and satisfactory results before the project expires in 2013. Ocean environment research institutes and governments need to cooperate each other to gain efficient and reasonable achievement by identifying and linking related projects. This study suggests that the marine environment and resources investigation projects should run parallel with the submerged marine litter collection projects on mutually agreed research items in the identical area of the ocean to obtain cost-effective improvement of marine environment and fishery conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.150-159
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• 2008

The marine litter generated as by-products of human activities and economic development enters to the sea through rivers or stream Indirectly, and through sea-based activities directly. It is commonly comprised of materials that degrade very slowly, such as various plastic products, polystyrene, glass, rubber, metal, wood, derelict fishing nets, wire, rope and so on. Such litter is found in the water column and on the seafloor as well as coastal areas In the Northwest Pacific region. It causes injury or death of human and other living organisms and also accident or damage of the vessel. It is not only a problem of country but also regional and/or global problem because it is transported by currents and winds from one country to another. In this regard, Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) Marine Litter Activity (MALITA) project had been carried out during 2006-2007 biennium and NOWPAP Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter (RAP MALI) has been also continuously implemented in the 2008-2009 biennium as next phase step of MALITA. MERRAC, one of four Regional Activity Centres (RACs) of NOWPAP, has developed monitoring guidelines, sectoral guidelines, and brochures related to sea-based marine litter and port reception facilities and services through MALITA project. Based upon these output, MERRAC will continuously implement relevant activities of RAP MALI in order to help to establish and improve a regional mechanism to deal with the sea-based marine litter problem. This paper aims to introduce MERRAC activities under MALITA and RAP MALI, and to suggest several recommendations to reduce marine litter in the NOWPAP region.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.359-365
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• 1999

This study deals with litter which has sunk and accumulated on the sea-bed of the Chinhae Bay obtained by using a beam trawler. The litter collected through the duration of survey (1997~1998) were distributed from 8.76~80.63 items/ha and 3.51~108.39 kg/ha, respectively, in quantities and weights. Especially bulky wastes(shell, tires, motorcycle and refrigerator) were composed of 76% of them, next metal and glasses, 29.5%. The seasonal variability of litters in the bay is large, as 62% in April, next August, 23%, in total weights.These discarded substances have the widespread distribution but varied in each sampled area. Therefore they exist in a significant pollutants, as threatening the fishing activities and near marine environment, and also potential damage to marine resources.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.104-115
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• 2014

Abundance and composition of marine debris on 13 beaches of Tongyeong City, South Korea were surveyed in 2013 Autumn. The average quantity of macro debris (>25 mm) was about 30 particle/$m^2$ and that of micro debris (1 mm-25 mm) was about 26,971 particle/$m^2$. This is a very high level compared with other areas of South Korea and the other countries. Among the 7 material types of debris (styrofoam, hard plastic, fiber, metal, glass, wood and others), styrofoam composed a large portion: 75% of macro debris and 98% of micro debris. And among the 'whole' styrofoam debris items whose original volume is remained more than 50%, styrofoam buoy debris composed 93%. This result suggests that the beaches surveyed are seriously contaminated by marine debris, and most of its sources are aquaculture styrofoam buoys. Management of styrofoam buoy debris used for oyster aquaculture in Tongyeong City is important not only for Tongyeong city, but also for other areas, because Tongyeong city hosts the biggest number of oyster aquaculture areas in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.45-49
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• 2015

Disturbance to marine wildlife is a serious negative impact of marine debris. In this study, the percentages of Black-faced Spoonbill nests that included plastic marine debris were calculated from surveys conducted on an islet named Suhaam off the western coast of South Korea. The percentages of nests including plastic decreased from 71% in 2010 to 37% in 2011 to 33% in 2012. The total number of nests increased from 28 in 2010 to 38 in 2011 to 43 in 2012. These differences in nests and nesting materials were possibly due to natural nesting materials such as tree branches and rice straws that were provided at the breeding site as a protective action in 2011 and 2012. Additional conservation efforts should be made to prevent further negative impacts from marine debris.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.263-273
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• 2015

We estimated the global inflow and stock of plastic marine debris. In South Korea, we estimated that the annual inflow of plastic marine debris (72,956 tons) was about 1.4% of annual plastics consumption (5.2 million tons) in 2012. By applying this 1.4% ratio to global plastics production from 1950 to 2013, we estimated that 4.2 million tons of plastic debris entered the ocean in 2013 and that there is a stock of 86 million tons of plastic marine debris as of the end of 2013, assuming zero outflow. In addition, with a logistic model, if 4% of petroleum is turned into plastics, the final stock of plastic marine debris shall be 199 million tons at the end. As the inflow and the stock are different units of measurement, better indicators to assess the effectiveness of inflow-reducing policies are needed. And, as the pollution from plastic marine debris is almost irreversible, countermeasures to prevent it should be valued more, and stronger preventive measures should be taken under the precautionary principle. As this is a preliminary study based on limited information, further research is needed to clarify the tendency of inflow and stock of plastic marine debris.