With the closed season for webfoot octopus catch being terminated as of August 31, NIFS urged to protect the young webfoot octopus for the stock management as the fishing is ahead. 

The West Sea Fisheries Research Institute of NIFS said that the maturity weights of webfoot octopus last year were 41g and 38g in Incheon and Jeonnam sea area, respectively. That is a huge downturn compared to the 55g of 2017, and is assumed that there might be a correlation between the downturn and the octopus's ecological strategy for survival under its declined stock - maintaining the population by reaching maturity at the early stage.

*Maturity weight (50%): The weight that 50% of the population can spawn. 

Webfoot octopus is one of the octopods, habitating across the Korean coastal areas, with one-year life span and spawning about 500 eggs (200 to 300 on average) between April and June. 80% of the national catch came from the West Sea, usually using gill nets, stow nets, or conch shell (hanging the conch shells onto the long line in place of fishing needles.) 

Webfoot octopus is very popular and in particularly the spring season for its good texture and taste, and the autumn season for recreational fishing. As such, the consumption of webfoot octopus has been increasing steadily.

In turn, the catch fell to 2,203t last year, decreasing continuously from 7,999t in 1998.