Chairman Noh Dong-jin of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives, also known as Suhyup, delivered his New Year’s message on Jan. 2 in which he prioritized the safety of everyone in the fishing industry across the nation.
Suhyup Chmn. Noh devoted himself to ensuring fishing safety at a ceremony to kick off the 2026 business year.
“I will devote myself to making the year 2026 the turning-point of dramatically reducing casualties,” Chmn. Noh said.
Suhyup, declaring this year the first year of ensuring fishing safety, plans to take steps to reduce casualties on a gradual basis.
The federation has decided to build a system designed to detect danger circumstances by analyzing fishing data and accident categories via AI and issue advance warnings.
Suhyup targets the completion of a system in which abnormality symptoms are detected by AI and control crew and rescue teams are immediately deployed.
The federation plans to finish the supply of life vests with maximized activity next month.
Figures released by Korea Maritime Safety Tribunal showed that an annual average of 2,965 maritime accidents were reported during the recent five-year period between 2020 and 2024, and 93 casualties were involved during the period.
Last year, 2,175 maritime accidents and 118 casualties — surpassing the average figures — were reported due to frequent bad weather conditions.
Suhyup officials conduct a campaign to urge fisherman to wear life vests to minimize casualties on Feb. 12.
Suhyup Sets Fishing Safety Management Roadmap In Motion
Suhyup has begun to implement a “fishing safety management roadmap” designed to reduce casualties, caused by maritime accidents on a gradual basis.
The roadmap is a follow-up measure following a ceremony to declare his wishing for fishing safety. It is designed to prevent actual accidents and reduce casualties, not ending up hollow declarative slogans.
Suhyup aims to reduce fishing casualties by 10 percent annually to 55 deaths by 2030.
To this end, Suhyup has decided to attach top priority to spreading safety awareness among fishermen on a voluntary basis.
Fishing cooperatives and fishing communities will lead campaigns to wear life vests and improve perception toward safety by conducting activities, such as life vest wearing certification drives.
In particular, one-crew member fishing ships, vulnerable to accidents as blind spots, are encouraged to form a group on a voluntary basis.
The step is designed to help neighboring fishing ships confirm each other’s safety as a “common safety network” so that in the event of an accident, a golden time can be secured to enable rescue in a fast fashion.
Departing from the conventional education programs targeting ship owners and captains, Suhyup will offer educational programs targeting Korean and foreign 1,0000 fishermen tailored to meet their needs.
In a mid- and long-term perspective, Suhyup aims to have every ship outfitted with an intelligent monitoring system designed to detect all fishing ships’ accident danger symptoms in real time.
Suhyup plans to make a paradigm shift, changing from a response strategy to one focused on prevention by building an integrated safety management platform combining big data, AI technology and satellite communications.
Woo Dong-keun, deputy head in charge of education support at Suhyup, said, “The roadmap is a step to bring about actual changes in conjunction with the declaring of this year as a first year of ensuring fishing safety, and we will devote ourselves to ensuring a safe fishing environment so that fishermen can sense changes by putting it into practice.”
One Crew Member Returns Alive Thanks to Life Vest Supplied by Suhyup
A fisherman was rescued thanks to a life vest supplied by Suhyup while drifting from his failed fishing ship.
Suhyup said on March 5 a fisherman drifting in the sea was rescued with the helps of an inflatable life vest that can inflate when hitting the sea automatically.
Suhyup said the fisherman fell into the sea after his ship collided with another ship near Hansando, Tongyeong, at 8:47 p.m. on March 3.
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