The current status of west sea fisheries resources and utilization in the context of fishery management of Korea

•We reviewed marine ecosystem, fisheries resources, and the status of assessment and management of Korean west sea fisheries.•We identified problems and issues in current fisheries management.•We introduced an ecosystem-based fisheries assessment and management approach (EBFM).•We demonstrated EBFM as an alternative and applied it to a coastal ecosystem.•We suggested policy implications, including an efficient management system.

Many fisheries resources in Korean waters are known to be depleted, and thus annual catch and catch per unit of effort of Korean coastal and offshore fisheries have shown a declining pattern. Moreover, some ecological indices have exhibited continuous declines, indicating degraded conditions in quality as well as quantity of fisheries resources. Considering the current circumstances, in this paper we review the marine ecosystem, fisheries resources, the history of fisheries management, and the present status of assessment and management of Korean west sea (the eastern part of the Yellow Sea) fisheries. Then, we attempt to identify problems and issues for the fisheries management. This paper introduces an ecosystem-based fisheries assessment and management approach as an alternative and applies it to a Korean coastal ecosystem in the west sea, Korea. Policy implications are suggested, which can be drawn from the discussions on the problems and concerns in current fisheries assessment and management in general. These suggestions include an efficient assessment and management system to prevent overfishing, protect biodiversity and habitat quality, and support expanded research, data collection, monitoring, and a multidisciplinary international cooperation with neighboring countries, such as China and Japan.