BRINGING BACK RIVER PUFFERS

[Anchor Lead]

The river puffer has been known as the best of all puffer fish, but this delectable fish was once endangered. Korea has been releasing artificially hatched puffer fries for the past 25 years, bringing back the once endangered fish.

[Pkg]

Local fishermen and important figures from Paju have gathered on the Imjingang River shore where you can get a glimpse of North Korea. They are here to release young river puffers that have been artificially hatched from the females caught in spring.

[Soundbite] "One, two, three, release."

Roughly 170,000 river puffers were released this time. It costs around three hundred won to raise one fry weighing about six grams. But once it matures and returns to the Imjingang River three to five years later, it will fetch 200,000 won per kilogram. After puffers in other rivers all vanished, what few river puffers left in the Imjingang River also came close to going extinct at one time. Fishermen attribute the continued presence of the river puffer in the Imjingang River to the ongoing puffer release project that's been carried out for the past 25 years since 1997.

[Soundbite] Jang Seok-jin(Paju Fishing Village Chief) : "Less than 30% of the river puffer caught are naturally hatched river puffers. Most of the river puffers were from the release project."

By spending 200 million won every year to release mitten crabs, eels and yellowhead catfish as well as river puffers, the Paju government aims to not only increase fishermen's income, but also revive the Imjingang River ecosystem and develop the city's tourism resources.

[Soundbite] Kim Kyung-il(Paju Mayor) : "It's not simply a fry release project. We undertake this project hoping to gain other accompanying profits."

The city of Paju is collecting discarded fishing gears and cleaning up the Imjingang River to improve the project's result.