CHANGWON — A high-water-temperature alert has been issued across all of South Gyeongsang Province's coastal waters. As surface temperatures topped 28 degrees Celsius, reports of farmed fish deaths have risen. The province is the country's largest fish-farming region, with 420,000 square meters of its 850,000 square meters of cage aquaculture — nearly half the nation's total — concentrated there, meaning prolonged high temperatures deepen losses for fish farms.
The provincial government said on the 25th that it had expanded the alert to cover waters from Namhae County to Geoje as of 4 p.m. on the 24th, amid a continuing heat wave. The move placed all of the province's waters under the alert, 14 days after an advisory was issued for waters from Tongyeong to Geoje on August 10.
Under the high-water-temperature system, a preliminary alert is issued when temperatures are expected to reach 25 degrees Celsius, an advisory at 28 degrees, and an alert when temperatures of 28 degrees or higher are expected to persist for three or more days.
Surface temperatures in the province's main waters averaged 28.7 degrees Celsius, 6.5 degrees higher than the same period last year. As temperatures above 28 degrees persisted across most waters, losses at fish farms mounted. As of the 24th, 44 farms in Tongyeong and the counties of Namhae and Hadong reported damage to 1.1 million farmed fish, including rockfish and mullet, and to 95 lines of sea squirts.
On the morning of the 25th, the province held an emergency video conference with related agencies, including the Fisheries Safety Technology Institute and city and county governments, to review its response and the extent of the damage. It decided to concentrate administrative resources on reducing losses, including recruiting and carrying out additional emergency releases of farmed fish.
So far, 74 farms have taken part in the emergency releases, freeing 5.78 million fish. The province plans to continue the releases at fish farms in waters where damage is feared.
Earlier, from July 27 to August 5, the Fisheries Safety Technology Institute and city and county governments formed joint on-site guidance teams to intensively inspect fish farms in 27 of the province's waters most vulnerable to high temperatures. The province will also keep assigning dedicated officials to the most vulnerable waters to guide fish-farm management until the special alerts are lifted.
"High water temperatures are expected to continue for some time because of the heat wave," said Hwang Pyeong-gil, director of the province's fisheries resources division. "Please respond with all-out efforts to minimize damage by strengthening on-site guidance, such as fasting feed, and by swiftly carrying out emergency releases of farmed fish."
Meanwhile, the duration of high-water-temperature special alerts is also lengthening. According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and other sources, the alert period rose from 43 days in 2021 to 64 days in 2022, 57 days in 2023, 71 days in 2024 and 85 days last year.
In 2024, high water temperatures persisted for 71 days, causing 66.4 billion won ($48 million) in damage from mass die-offs of farmed fish in South Gyeongsang Province alone — a record high. Last year, high water temperatures killed 3.838 million farmed fish, and an additional 3.09 million died as red tide compounded the damage.
