"Nice to meet you, salmon".Hometown Returned After 20,000km Long Journey

[Anchor]
These days, as autumn deepens, salmon that left for faraway seas are returning to their East Coast hometown rivers to lay eggs.

Reporter Song Se-hyuk delivers the homecoming of salmon after a long journey of 20,000km.

[Reporter]
Yangyang Namdaecheon in Gangwon-do, the largest salmon return river in Korea.

The water is full of salmon the size of an adult's forearm.

After completing a whopping 20,000km journey to the North Pacific and the Bering Sea, he returned to his hometown in three to four years.

The wounds left over the body show traces of the difficult journey.

After taking a breath for a while, the salmon head upstream again and vigorously back against the current.

Even if you are blocked by obstacles, you don't give up and jump.

[Kim Hyunwoo / Marine Ecological and Environmental Engineering student at Gangneung Wonju University: It's very mysterious that they'll start from here and come back to the same place in 3 to 4 years]

We are also in the midst of capturing mother salmon and modifying the eggs.

The Korea Fisheries Resources Corporation plans to hatch 7 million young salmon from four rivers along the east coast, including Namdaecheon, and release them next spring.

However, the amount of regression is gradually decreasing.

Salmon, a cold-water fish species that lives in cold water, is affected by rising water temperatures caused by global warming.

[Lee Sang-woo / Deputy Director of Donghae Life Resources Center, Korea Fisheries Resources Corporation: There is a 5-10% decrease (from last year). I think this trend is seen as part of the warming process....]

Until the end of this month, the capture of salmon by the general public in rivers on the east coast is prohibited, and violations could result in up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won.

I'm YTN's Song Sehyuk.