Marine Heatwave Compounded by Water Hypoxia

The Pohang City Government has released statistics on the damage to offshore aquaculture. A prolonged marine heatwave has raised coastal seawater temperatures, with water temperatures at two monitoring sites reaching as high as 28.1°C—a level that has exceeded the survival threshold for flounder for an extended period. Domestic wastewater from coastal residential areas and stormwater runoff from farmland continue to flow into the coastal waters, causing a sharp increase in nutrients and a significant depletion of dissolved oxygen, resulting in multiple areas of hypoxia.