Yellow Sea crab haul swings up in five years

Yeonpyeong Island of Ongjin County, the west coast’s best-known crab’s main fishing region, crab haul has swung upwards this year for the first time in five years.

According to Ongjin County on Sunday, the catch near Yeonpyeong Island during the fishing period (April-June, September-November) posted 1.3 million kilograms. This is up by 35 percent from the previous year, which was 0.97 million kilograms. The amount the crab sales have brought reached 10 million dollars, almost twice year-on-year.

In particular, this year, 0.71 million kilograms of crab were caught in the first half of this year, far exceeding the 0.26 million kilograms over the same period of last year. However, the catch in the second half of this year was a 10 percent drop year-on-year to 0.58 million kilograms from 0.71 million kilograms in the second half of last year. Fishers said “The haul has dropped due to a drastic increase in illegal fishing by Chinese ships from October near the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea.”

The crab catch near Yeonpyeong Island, which accounts for some 25 percent of all crab caught near Incheon each year was declining from 2009: 2.95 million kilograms in 2009; 2.42 million kilograms in 2010; 2.25 million kilograms in 2011; 1.89 million kilograms in 2012. Last year was a record low of 0.97 million kilograms.

An Ongjin County official, “The density of young crab has increased since fall last year, and the surface temperature of the Yellow Sea is one degree Celsius higher than in other years, which promotes crab growth, which appears to have pushed up the crab haul for the year.”