Jeju Special Self-Governing Province urged the national government to take special measures to prepare against damages that will be incurred by people in the fisheries industry such as the enactment of a special act to compensate for damages and designate special disaster areas, etc., ahead of the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan.

Jeju Province participated in the National City and Province Marine Product Safety Policy Consultative Meeting held at the Government Complex Sejong on the 21st of last month and emphasized the need for national compensation measures in order to minimize damages to the fisheries industry.

National City and Province Marine Product Safety Policy Consultative Meeting is joined by working personnel, including director-level positions of marine and fisheries departments of local self-governing organizations, to share the status of marine product safety policies and systems and to discuss suggestions of each city and province to search for ways to develop marine product policies.

On this day, Jeju Province mentioned the importance of coming up with special measures for the damages that people in the fisheries industry will suffer, and stressed the importance of providing legal grounds for providing direct subsidies to compensate for damages incurred by fishing ships, fish farms, processing, and village fisheries.

In particular, it pointed out the need to enact a special act to compensate for damages, designate a special disaster area, direct subsidies to compensate for damages, etc., to provide practical compensation if fisheries workers are negatively affected.

In addition, it strongly urged support for radioactivity measurement equipment that fishery cooperatives and processing companies, etc., can use on-site as there is a heightening interest in marine product safety.

Meanwhile, the Jeju region has an increased possibility of being affected by the discharged nuclear reactor contaminated water as well as a hike in imported marine products from Fukushima following the Korea-Japan summit. Therefore, marine industry organizations, farmers, and civic groups have been participating in demonstrations against discharge into the sea, and collective actions are growing.

Immediately after Japan announced its decision to discharge contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear reactors, Jeju Provine established a four-stage response plan presuming the discharge on the 14th and has activated a task force.