Editorial on the research topic: celebrating 100 years of modern fisheries science research in Korea

Korea’s fisheries science research began in 1921 at the Fisheries Experiment Station established during the Japanese colonial periods. Japan launched the station to plunder Korea’s fisheries resources (NFRDI, 2001). After the liberation, the nation had to start rebuilding the country based on the poor infrastructure with heart-breaking history. But since then, nation’s only fisheries research institute, the National Institute of Fisheries Science (NIFS), has been established and has promoted the development of fisheries technology and industry, Korea’s fisheries industry has been on par with advanced countries. As we look back over the past century of the Korean fisheries science research, the initial stage of research started with basic oceanographic observations and fishery surveys in the 1920’s. From 1930’s up until the end of the Japanese colonial periods, Japan investigated fisheries resources on the coasts of Korea for the purpose of procuring war supplies. From the late 1940’s to the 1950’s, after the liberation, the dissemination of agar manufacturing technology has promoted the Korean export industry, accounting for 20 percent of the nation’s total exports (NIFS, 2019). In the 1960’s, the emergence of Korean distant-water fisheries such as tuna fishing (MSIT, 2015) and the development and dissemination of shellfish and seaweed farming technologies, including oyster, clams, laver, and sea mustard, increased the seafood production and export, building a solid basis for the Korean economy (Bae, 1985). Fisheries science research has further advanced since the 1970’s, where the development of hygiene management and processing technologies of fisheries products have accelerate the shellfish export, and researches on stow net and anchovy tow net fisheries enabled a significant cost reduction (NIFS, 2019). Since the 1980’s, starting with the development of flounder farming technology, hard efforts have been made to develop aquaculture technologies for a variety of aquatic organisms, such as olive flounder and abalone (Park & Kim, 2013), according to the government’s fish farming development policy. In particular, in the 1990’s, our research capability has expanded to address marine environmental issues, developing monitoring technologies and preventive measures in response to a mass occurrence of harmful aquatic organisms such as red algae. In the 2000’s, NIFS has led the development of high-tech aquaculture technologies by developing