S. Korea, Japan agree on 2010 bilateral fishing quota agreement

SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and Japan agreed on a bilateral fisheries
quota agreement for 2010 that will maintain last year's total allowable catch
levels, the government said Monday.

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the agreement
reached in Seoul with the Fisheries Agency of Japan, calls for boats from both
sides to catch up to 60,000 tons of fish in the other country's exclusive
economic zone (EEZ).
The pact reached during five days of talks held last week and to go into effect
on March 1, also allows South Korea and Japan to operate 900 fishing boats in the
other country's EEZ, that represents a cut of 40 boats from the previous year.
"Initially, Japan called for the total haul to be reduced to 52,000 tons and 574
boats to better preserve fisheries resources, but Seoul countered that such
reductions would hurt fishing operations," a ministry official said.
He said under the new arrangement, 50 Korean boats will be able to catch scabbard
fish south of the 27 degrees northern latitude, up from 20 boats permitted as of
last year.
South Korean fishing boats, in addition, only need to report their plans to
operate in Japan's EEZ six hours ahead of time instead of 12 hours dictated under
the current agreement, and will be required to maintain their global position
system (GPS) data records for five days that can reduce the inconvenience imposed
on fishermen.
GPS records are used to determine if a boat operated in unauthorized fishing
grounds ,with Japan originally requesting that the data be preserved for seven
days.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
(END)

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