Last week, Korean fishermen caught almost 4,000 Northern bluefin tuna South of Jeju Island, a rarity for the fishing grounds. The first batch of about 1,530 bluefin weighed an average 35 kilograms and were 110 to 150 centimeters long. Busan-based Wooyang Fishing, the owner of the boat, exported most of the catch straight to Japan.
The second catch of 2,300 fish was of smaller fish, mostly 70 centimeters long, except for 120 tuna weighing between 30 and49 kilograms. Total revenue for the second haul was almost US$1 million. The two boats that hauled the second batch were Busan-based Geunseong and Munchang Fishing Companies.
Kim Jeong-yeon of Korea's Fisheries Research and Development Institute said that the large Northern bluefin tuna wasn't commonly found in South Korean cold water, until after the 1990s. Kim speculated global warming contributed to the migration pattern. Last week was the first time South Korea caught the one-meter length tuna. It was also the first time Korean fishing boats harvested such a large volume of bluefin tuna.
Last December, 540 tons of bluefin were found some 70 miles South of Geoje Island.
