OCEAN WASTE DISRUPTS FISHING

[Anchor Lead]

Shrimp fishing is in full swing in waters off Incheon, near the downstream of the Hangang River. But the fishing nets haul up more vinyl wrappers than shrimps, indicating that there is so much ocean waste that fishing is nearly impossible.

[Pkg]

Waters off the Hangang River estuary... Fishing nets should be hauling up succulent shrimps. But instead there are clumps of plastic wrappers.

[Soundbite] "This is an official Seoul Olympics ramyeon."

There are ramyeon package dating back to the 1980s, ice cream wrappers and even propaganda leaflets. There seems to be more trash than shrimp.

[Soundbite] Jo Yong-gu(Fisherman) : "There are hardly any fish. It’s embarrassing to show this to other people."

Fishermen use a fan to sort out plastic scraps.

[Soundbite] Kim Jin-nam(Fisherman) : "I have to wash them, sift them, and then sort them by hand. (That means you have to sort them several times. How long does it take?) About four hours."

A single fishing boat catches about 30 kilograms of shrimp, fetching some 200,000 won. But around 150 liters of trash is also hauled up. Plastic waste does not affect the quality of shrimp, but makes fishermen’s work that much harder.

[Soundbite] Heo Geum(Fisherman) : "Work used to be hard but fun. Now I get more trash than fish, so I tend to take more days off."

Most of the trash flows down the Hangang River. Plastic wrappers tend to sink and emerge repeatedly and float around for decades. The Incheon city government decided to invest roughly 100 billion won by 2025 to purchase collected trash, but experts say trash should be stopped at the rivers.

[Soundbite] Jang Jeong-gu(Environment and Climate Policy Division, Incheon City Gov’t) : "In order to stop trash at the rivers, there needs to be relevant regulations, standards and guidelines, but none is in place yet."

Only seven fishing boats are found at the port that used to be bustling with nearly 30 boats. The fishermen are worried that more trash would come their way once the rainy season begins.