Global Environmental Change, Fishing Community Development, and Inequality: The Case of Jeju Island

The paper aims at addressing unequal development of fishing community in Jeju Island, South Korea. For this aim the paper studies three fishing community associations in the Island. The island’s fishing community is a traditional livelihood unit consisting of fishers and women divers. The community forms along the coastal line of the island, which is about 200 kilometers long. It is organized with 100 fishing community associations (called eochongye in Korean language), which are demarcated by regional, administrative boundaries. While the associations were established nationally drawing upon fishery law in 1962, the island’s membership includes 12,994 individuals as of December 2011.

The unequal development of the fishing community in terms of economic output is conditioned by fishing ground difference. It is reported that fishing ground for each fishing community association differs in terms of geological characters and diversity in marine resources. Negative marine ecosystem change is an emerging factor that is likely to structure further development of the fishing community. The change has been visible particularly with stones along the coastal line having turned into white and unlivable for marine plants to grow on. The stones under the seawater are reported to exhibit the same problem. With plants being unable to grow, sea goods such as seashells and sea urchins which live upon the plants and women divers collect for their livelihood have significantly decreased. Fish has also disappeared with lack of sea plants they diet. While fishing activities by the community are getting challenged with negative marine environmental change, the activities are now increasingly turning into the objects for tourists’ gaze and experiences. However the touristic development has not equally taken place across the associations. By looking into three fishing community associations, the paper clarifies unequal patterns in fishing community development in the global environmental change era.