CURRENT STATUS OF ABALONE AQUACULTURE IN KOREA  

For the past decade, the farmed abalone landings in Korea have been increased exponentially, from 85 tons in 2002 to 4,350 tons in 2007 and 6,564 tons in 2012. Currently a total of 4,963 abalone aquaculture licenses have been issued by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, 4,279 licenses for grow-out and 684 licenses for hatchery. Among the 6 known abalone species in Korean waters, the Pacific abalone Haliotis discus hannai has been extensively cultured. Among the 4,963 Korean abalone grow-out farms, 95% of the farms are concentrated on the small bays and islands on the south-west coast, where the abalones are cultured mostly using floating net cages. In particular, approximately 80% of the abalone aquaculture farms and 40% of the abalone hatchery in Korea are located in Wando Island, off the south-west coast, where the Pacific abalone H. discus hannai has been intensively cultured using the floating net cages. In Wando Island, the abalone growers use large brown algae Undaria pinnatifida and Laminaria japonica as feeds, which are cultured in the same area using a suspended long-line culture system. Artificial diets for the abalones in the farming industry also have been developed. Mortality of the spats in the hatcheries have been observed, mainly in July and September in Wando Island, possibly due to the higher water temperature and low oxygen level causing physiological stresses to the abalone spats. Mortalities of the abalones in the grow-out cages also have been reported, mostly in summer, from June to September, and the mortalities were associated linked to the spawning activities. The sudden increase in the abalone production in Korea resulted in price decrease in the domestic markets, and the Korean abalone industry does more research on processing the abalone meats to develop various value-added abalone products, to overcome the problems involved in the overproduction.