Emergence of Rare Fish Here Linked to Global Warming

Giant blue-fin tuna and other semitropical fish are increasingly being caught in South Korean waters, a phenomenon linked to global warming.

At a fish market in Busan, three blue-fin tuna were put up for auction Thursday. The fish, 2.32-2.43 meters in length and 250-300 kilograms in weight, were caught near Jeju Island last Sunday. They fetched 3 to 3.1 million won each.

They were the largest tuna caught off the southern coast in recent months. Korea had an unusually large number of tuna in spring, with some 7,000 blue-fin caught in April and May, the largest weighing 70 kilograms. Tuna hauled from Korean waters used to be 50-70 centimeters long, but those caught this spring measured 70-150 centimeters, according to the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute.

"I've never seen tuna this big,'' a director of the fish market said.

Experts say these kinds of fish were rarely seen previously in the relatively chilly South Korean waters and the increasing advent of these kinds of semitropical species is a result of global warming.

The fisheries institute presumes that global warming is part of the reasons for such a haul of "rare'' fish here. "Korea had tuna before, but numbers are growing and they are appearing more frequently as the temperature of seas off the south coast and around Jeju has risen by about 2 degrees Celsius from 30 years ago and the warm current there is strong,'' said Choi Young-min, a researcher at the institute.

Another rare kind of fish, the whale shark, was recently caught in seas off Yeosu, South Jeolla Province. Two whale sharks, 4.4 and 5.8 meters long, respectively, were put up for auction also in Busan.

The whale shark, the biggest fish in the world, is a large-sized shark that usually inhabits subtropical sea areas, and is rarely seen around Korea.

Tuna is not the only "new'' fish species being caught here. Blue mackerel ― a type of mackerel with dark spots on its dorsal surface ― used to be caught only in the summer, but they are now commonly seen in spring and fall as well. Damselfish, which used to inhabit waters near Jeju, are now to be found in the South and East seas, Choi said.

Koreans may be forced to eat more tuna and damselfish than before, and less Alaskan pollack and sardine. Alaska pollack and sardine, which inhabit cold waters, have almost disappeared from Korean waters and fishermen must now go to either the Sea of Okhotsk or the Bering Sea to catch them.

"Specific kinds of fish, which used to visit Korea during specific seasons, do not follow the seasonal order now. They come and go regardless of the season,'' Choi said.

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Emergence of Rare Fish Here Linked to Global Warming