Pukyong National University

PKNU held a retirement ceremony for the training ship ’Gaya’
sailed 158,000 miles for 28 years ... at the pier of Yongho Bay on Dec,16.

△ Participants at the retirement ceremony of ship Gaya are taking commemorative photos in front of the ship. ⓒPhoto by Lee Sung-jae (PR Team)

Pukyong National University (President Jang Young-soo) held an event to commemorate the retirement of the training ship ’Gaya (1,737 tons)’ which has been in charge of training onboard the university for 28 years.

On the morning of the 14th, Pukyong National University’s Training ship Management Center (Jeong Tae-young, Chief) held a ’retirement ceremony for Gaya’ at the pier of Yongho Bay.

This event was set up to celebrate the retirement of Gaya, which has been leading international exchanges in the marine, marine industry, and education sectors by laying the foundation for raising Korea’s fishery capacity to a world-class level for 28 years from 1993.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the event was held in the order of observing the quarantine regulations and introducing the specifications and officials of ship Gaya, giving appreciation plaques, and delivering a retirement order with only people involved.

The Pukyong National University training ship Gaya was built by Daesun Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd., and since its service in 1993, it has been responsible for the deep-sea boarding practice, which pioneered deep-sea fishing in the North Pacific Ocean in Korea.

At the time of construction, CTD, which is the state-of-the-art observation equipment, water temperature and salinity observation equipment, scientific sonar, fishing gear observation equipment, and equipped with a trawl winch fishing system, Gaya has sailed 158,000 miles (254,000 kilometers) for 2,700 days so far, and visited 20 cities around the world. The number of participants who joined the boarding practice reaches up to 42,000.

Gaya has supported not only students’ boarding practice, but also experience programs for middle school students, global marine and fisheries exploration for foreign students, research and research in coastal and deep oceans, and filming marine documentaries.

Jeong Tae-young, head of Training ship Management Center at Pukyong National University said, "Ship Gaya has been playing a role as a landmark of the university by supporting the university’s education, research, and practice programs as well as foreign institutions’ research and visit programs. I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me to carry out the boarding practice without any accident." <Pukyong Today>