First Report on Disease Management Status and Control Plan at Recreational Fishing Place in Korea

Despite the increase in demand for recreational fishing and the importance of the recreational fishing industry, there is no research on disease management in recreational fishing place. Therefore, for the first time in Korea, we classified the facility of permitted or registered recreational fishing place (fishing place), investigated the disease management status of each facility, and prepare the control plan to prevent disease occurrence and reduce damage when it occurs. Among the 780 fishing places permitted and registered in Korea, Gyeonggi (32.8%) had the largest number of fishing places, followed by Chungbuk (14.7%), Gyeongnam (14.5%), and Chungnam (11.9%). Regarding the type of facilities in fishing places, the small scale of freshwater was the highest ratio with 46.0%, followed by seawater outdoor (18.3%), freshwater medium scale (11.0%), freshwater indoor (11.0%), freshwater large scale (9.7%) and seawater indoors (4.0%). Compared with other areas, the number of seawater outdoor fishing places in Gyeongnam was relatively high. In freshwater small and indoor fishing places, the density of fish was higher than those in large and medium scales and there is a high possibility of disease outbreak caused by live bait such as earthworm and handling stress when fish are released again after catching it. In order to reduce the possibility of introduction of pathogens into fishing places, it is necessary to release healthy fish confirmed by disease identification, and investigate risk analysis on disease transmission by live bait and bird. Therefore, these results may provide important information for preparing measures to prevent occurrence and spread of diseases in fishing places at the national level.