Pukyong National University

What is the sea for Koreans? 'Familiar but lack of education·safety consciousness'
PKNU opened the ‘Marine Composite Index of 2018' survey

For Koreans, the sea is a positive and familiar place, but the level of education and safety consciousness related to the sea is found to be insufficient.

The Pukyong National University's Institute of Global Area and Studies (Jeong Hae-jo,Chief director) and the Institute of Marine and Humanities (Jo Se Hyun) recently surveyed 1,000 male and female adults throughout the country on the subject of 'What is the sea for Koreans' and interviewed them for the Marine Composite Index of 2018 (Pukyong Marine Index).

According to the results of the survey, the 'Marine Composite Index', which comprehends the Korean marine awareness, showed a low score of only 586.5 points out of 1000 points, and it is necessary to make efforts to raise the overall awareness of the sea.

The index of familiarity and policy index was 72.6 and 74.1 each in the Marine Composite Index, which was composed of 10 index figures, indicating a positive perception of the ocean and a high awareness of marine policy.

On the while, the education index and safety index showed 42.7 and 50.8 each, and the level of education and safety consciousness related to the sea were low. 60.8 % answered yes to the question "There is a possibility of experiencing large-scale disasters in the sea." Compare to the former, only 30.9 % of respondents answered positively that they would be safely rescued when an accident occurred at sea.

Environmental index that represents the satisfaction and environmental awareness for the marine environment is also a low 55.4 points. Satisfaction with sea water quality management (47.9 points) and marine garbage disposal status (40.5 points) were low, and especially satisfaction with marine garbage disposal level (28.6 points) in Jeju area showed very low.

The food index, which is awareness of sea products, also did not reach a high score of 59.4. As a result of questioning the satisfaction of aquatic foods, the evaluation of taste (75.9 points) and nutrition (74.5 points) was good, but it was lower in price (48.4 points).

As a result of surveying the 'Ocean Representatives' apart from the marine Index, Korea's representative maritime city was represented by Busan, the representative island was Jeju Island, Haeundae was the most memorable sea and whale was the most favorite marine life.

Jeong Hae-jo, the Chief director said, "The purpose of this survey is to understand the meaning of the ocean according to the experience of the region, generation, and individual, and to use it as a basis for the study of marine humanities, marine education, and marine culture industry." and he added, " We need to improve the relevant system and education policy so that we can support the expectation of the people."

The survey was conducted by Pukyong National University's Institute of Global Area and Studies and the Institute of Marine and Humanities with the support of the CORE project to strengthening university humanities capacity, and was commissioned to Gallup Korea and conducted from December 20 to January 18 this year. Sampling error is ± 3.10 % p at 95 % confidence level. <Pukyong Today>