Abstract
As discarded fishing gear settles or floats on the seabed, it destroys the spawning and habitat of fisheries resources that causes various safety accidents and adverse effects on the environment, such as generating microplastics and causing ship accidents. In order to solve this problem, this study is intended to present an implementation plan for establishing a fishing gear deposit system in order to use it as basic data for establishing policies for fishing gear management in Korea. In order to successfully implement the fishing gear deposit system, the deposit system must be established in the form of fishing gear completed at the production stage. It was found that the marking of the object should be easy, and that determining an appropriate deposit amount to motivate the return of waste fishing gear and establishing a convenient return procedure for returned waste fishing gear were important factors. In addition, transparent management of unreturned deposits and mandatory use of fishing gear subject to the deposit system for fishermen will be necessary. The role of a specialized organization to manage and operate all of these procedures is also very important. It is necessary to establish a new mandatory provision in the Fisheries Act to require fishermen who directly use fishing gear to use fishing gear with a deposit refund mark, and to ensure the implementation of the deposit system by linking it with the evaluation items of government policy projects. Since the main purpose of the deposit system is to collect discarded fishing gear, a support plan will be necessary in accordance with the purchase project for fishing waste salvaged by local governments in 2020.