Chairman Kim Jae-chul of the Dongwon Group. (Photos:Dongwon Industries)

Dongwon Industries held a launching ceremony of the Hanara, a high-tech purse seiner equipped with modern fishing gears to catch tunas, at the Dadae Harbor of the Busan Harbor on Feb. 16 with Chairman Kim Jae-chul of Dongwon Group leading the ceremony, along with President Lee Myoung-woo of Dongwon Industries, among the participants.

The deep-sea fishing vessel was the fourth to be launched by the company in 20 months under Chairman Kim’s strategy to boost the global ranks of the Korean deep-sea fishing industry to third in the world from 15th, where it stands now. 

The Dongwon Group chairman wants to rewrite the myth of the Korean deep-sea fishing industry, whose total annual catch has fallen to 1,606 tons, only 10 percent of China’s deep sea fishing industry, and he is determined to make daring investments in high-tech fishing equipment and vessels.

The deep-sea fishing industry was a key played in the modernization of Korea, with exports totaling around 5 percent of the nation’s total annual exports in 1971, making Korea’s deep-sea fishing industry among the top three in the world, behind only Japan and the U.S. In the 1970s, the number of deep-sea fishing vessels in Korea totaled around 800, but that has fallen to only around 300.

“Hanara” means “great ocean” in Korean, and Chairman Kim wrote the words himself. The new tuna fishing vessel is equipped with the most updated deep-sea fishing equipment available, including efficient refrigerators, which are useful in canning tunas and live tuna slices to generate increased high value-added earnings.

Dongwon Industries dispatched four deep-sea tuna purse seiners with high-tech fishing equipment in the past 20 months since loading on the vessels with modern fishing equipment at a cost of 100 billion won. The company decided to plunk down a huge sum of money to modernize its deep-sea fishing fleet, although the desire to boost investments in the deep-sea fishing vessels has been waning.

President Lee Myoung-woo said the company was able to overcome two oil shocks with a challenging spirit and is out to fight for the recovery of the deep-sea fishery in Korea with daring investments.

Chairman Kim swore to revive Korea’s deep-sea fishing industry with the same spirit that Samsung Electronics has used to become a global enterprise with a slate of modern technologies. “What we need is daring investments in high-tech fishing gears to recapture its leadership in the global deep-sea fishing in the near future,” he said. 

The company expects a substantial increase in exports of fish and fish products because of the new investments. President Lee said. He expects the company will be able to export 20 billion won worn worth of fresh and canned tunas.

Dongwon Industries has been able to expand its deep-sea fishing fleet with the recent launch of four deep-sea fishing vessels, including the Hanara, bringing the number of its fleet to 40 including 18 tuna purse seiners, 16 tuna longliners, one trawler and 15 transport vessels. Dongwon Industries is known to be a responsible company in Korea and overseas, both nominally and virtually. It is not only concerned with its profitability, but rather the company considers marine resources and the environment a top priority for the sustainability of precious resources. 

Dongwon is complying with all the regulations from RFMOs being updated frequently. Furthermore, in a bid to practice sustainable fishing, all of the purse seiners belonging to Dongwon Industries have registered in ISSF PVR system.

Chairman Kim Jae-chul, center, poses with President Lee Myoung-won of Dongwon Industries with the Hanara, a high-tech purse seiner equipped with high-tech fishing gears to catch tunas behind at a launching ceremony of the new modern deep-sea fishing vessel at Dadae Harbor of Busan Harbor on Feb. 16.