Posco leads effort to revive ocean ecosystem off Pohang

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Posco leads effort to revive ocean ecosystem off Pohang

Published: 28 Nov. 2024, 17:06

Posco uses its Triton artificial fish banks made with steel slag to create a marine forest in the waters off Pohang in North Gyeongsang. [POSCO]

Posco is creating a large-scale marine forest in the seas off Pohang to solve marine deforestation and restore the coastal ecosystem.

With the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Korea Fisheries Resources Agency and the Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST), the steelmaker held a ceremony for the marine forest on Nov. 11 after installing their "Triton” artificial fish banks along the coasts of Gupyeong-ri and Mopo-ri in South Gyeongsang.

Around 50 people were in attendance, including Cho Kyung-suk, Posco's managing director of climate, the environment and safety, the Korea Fisheries Resources Agency's East Sea department head Choi Sung-kyun, Pohang representative Seo Jae-won and Park Hyung-hwan, head of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the North Gyeongsang Provincial Office.

The project is part of a memorandum of understanding signed in April on the Revitalization of Public-Private Cooperation in Building Sea Forests signed by Posco and the three other organizations with the intent of collaborating on the establishment of such forests and maximizing their biodiversity and blue carbon — carbon captured by the ocean and coastal ecosystems that will play a crucial role in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

A response to severe marine deforestation, artificial fish banks and the marine forest spanning 2.29 square kilometers (0.88 square miles), roughly the size of 320 football pitches, were established in the waters off Pohang. Posco contributed 1 billion won ($715,000), including the donation of 211 Triton fish banks, while the Oceans Ministry made an equivalent contribution.

The fish banks are proprietary Posco technology that reuse steel slag generated as waste in its steelmaking process as well as RIST's. High in minerals such as iron and calcium, the banks accelerate the photosynthesis and growth of algae, helping to restore biodiversity. The biological productivity of the algae is to further improve using iron sea fertilizer RIST is currently developing.

The three-year-old marine forest in Ulleung County,North Gyeongsang, was established by Posco in 2020, forming a stable bed of marine algae and habitat for fish. [POSCO]

During the ceremony, 20,000 spotbelly rockfish donated by the North Gyeongsang Fisheries Resources Research Institute were released into the waters around the marine forest. The fish grows quickly, which facilitates faster population stabilization and has high consumer demand, offering reliable revenue for local fishers.

For the next three years, the four signatories will tend to the marine forest and track the regenerative effects in the coastal ecosystem and improvements in marine deforestation, while also working toward international blue carbon certification for seaweed and other marine forests.

Posco will continue to exert efforts to improve biodiversity and contribute to restoring the marine ecosystem with more marine forest projects.

BY KIM YEONSOO [[email protected]]

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