- Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to invest KRW 28.9 billion in eco-friendly fishing vessels by 2025 -

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF; Minister MOON, Seong-Hyeok) will launch the technology development of energy-reduced eco-friendly hybrid** fishing vessels from July to respond to the enhanced environmental regulations* on greenhouse gas emissions and further the conversion to low/zero-carbon fishing vessels.

* National Roadmap for Greenhouse Gas Reductions by 2030 (Paris Agreement of December 2015), Announcement of 2050 Carbon Neutral Strategy (December 2020)

** Hybrid fishing boats combining fossil fuels and electricity (Sailing operations: combined electric energy / Fishing operations: generated electricity)

Currently, the widely used offshore fishing ships incur high costs and have low efficiency. These ships are mainly structured towards fishing-centric facilities and are based on designs that leverage diesel engines, resulting in low energy efficiency and producing marine pollutants such as nitrogen oxides.

To resolve such challenges, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries is rolling out its plans for the development of eco-friendly hybrid-energy technology for fishing vessels with enhanced energy-efficiency technology to respond to the reinforced environmental regulations for reduced greenhouse gas emissions and to improve the safety and welfare of the crew.

The Ministry publicly recruited participants from January to March 2021. The final list of research institutions for the consortium was finalized and agreements were signed in May. Starting this July, a total of KRW 28.9 billion will be invested until 2025 to carry out the project.

The development of the eco-friendly hybrid-energy technology will be targeting fishing vessels involved in general coastal fishery, coastal gill net fishery, and inshore jigging fishery*. The technology will also introduce new standards on vessel hull designs by △ optimizing the space for electric-hybrid propellers by developing core machinery and materials technology including electric motors and batteries, △ developing related system technology, and △ conducting safety assessments such as for resilience.

* Coastal vessels (total of 37,785 vessels as of 2019): 16,719 general coastal vessels (44%), 12,592 coastal gill net vessels (33%) / Inshore vessels (2,677): 443 inshore jigging vessels (16.5%)

In particular, the project will run pilot operations of the newly produced standard vessels with the support of the fishing community to verify the performance of the standard vessel hulls and to improve their practical utility. There are also plans to enhance the safety of the vessels by installing the new fishing operations system technology* currently being developed by the National Fisheries Research & Development Institute.

* Emergency stop device for net haulers, AI-based fishing operations safety system (perceive/detect operational status and sounds), technology to prevent safety accidents such as collisions

Moreover, the project intends to maximize the project benefits by connecting with other R&D projects, whereby the eco-friendly energy-hybrid vessel technology can be developed based on the standard vessels (second-generation vessels)* with improved safety and welfare space for the crew.

* 2nd generation vessels: (2017 〜 2021) R&D for the next-generation safety and welfare vessels is in progress with an investment of KRW 24.2 billion.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries expects to reach its goal of improving fuel efficiency by 30% and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25% with the development of the new eco-friendly energy-hybrid vessels. Once the new eco-friendly fishing vessel production technology is secured, it is expected to revive Korea’s currently depressed small shipbuilding industry and to raise its competitive edge.

Cho Il-hwan, Head of Fisheries Resources Policies at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, commented that “the newly developed eco-friendly hybrid vessels are expected to not only secure space for the safety and welfare of crew, but also build a foundation for sustainable fishing by improving energy efficiency.” He also added that the Ministry “will continue to actively promote the conversion to eco-friendly fishing vessels to achieve net neutral carbon emissions by 2050, and support programs will be introduced to ensure the supply of eco-friendly fishing vessels at the operation sites.”