A Study on the History and Future Direction of Fishery Science in Korea

Abstract

The first educational institution of fishery science in Korea was the Simplified Fishery School established in 1910, where the subjects of the education were mostly for fishery technologies. In 1941 the Busan Fisheries High School has been established as a higher fisheries educational institution, and the formal fisheries education was initiated for the first time for teaching major subjects of fishery science. As secondary educational institutions, fisheries high schools were established to teach elementary level of fishery science starting in 1950s, however, those institutions have been partially replaced by higher edutional institutions since 1960s. Off-school fisheries educational institutions were also established since 1965, for example, the Korea Fishing Technology Training Center has trained fishermen and general public for basic fisheries education. Recently, the United Nations has made efforts to maintain sustainable marine food resources, such as setting the Sustainable Development Goal(SDG) 14, which is a new paradigm for the conservation of marine ecosystems and the sustainable use of fisheries resources. However, the effort to comply to this new paradigm is not sufficient in Korea. In this study future direction to the education of fishery science was suggested to comply with the new global paradigm. First, the education goal should be adjusted to the new paradigm of the ecosystem-based fisheries approach to management, considering not only fishery in itself, but also it’s environment of the ecosystem. Second, the multi-disciplinary integrated education is necessary to acquire advanced widened knowledge of the ecosystem-based fisheries approach. Third, the contents of education such as curriculums for the new education scope, should be developed using Knowledge-Information Matrix approach. Finally, the advanced fishery science education system should be established based upon the new global paradigm, recognizing three suggestions above.