Abstract
Well-deviced buyback programs may be detrimental to achieve sustainable fisheries. However, it is not difficult to find undesirable examples that the result of buyback program have no impact on fish stocks or the sustainability of the fishery. This paper discusses the problems and policy directions for successful restructuring of Korean marine fisheries through comparative analysis of selected cases from five main countries including Japan, Norway, Italy, Taiwan and Australia. From the analysis, this study demonstrated that Korean buyback program just pursue the reduction of boat number but passed over alleviation of the real ability in fishing industry. Although there were clear decrease of fishing effort in a certain parts of fisheries and some evidences of advancement in efficiency, it seemed hard to continue these effects because the Korean policy lacks consistency and coherence of systematic restructuring. To summary, four things are recommended for successful application of Korean buyback program; first is to establish the obvious goal of the program, second is to introduce downsizing in both fleet capacity and engine power, third is to conduct other management tools simultaneously to help resource restoration, and last, but not the least is to induce voluntary participation of fishermen providing opportunity to pursue their mutual interest.