-The MIFAFF planning to establish marine centers and piers A large-scale water theme park will be created in Yeosu, Korea. The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) announced on March 11th that it would embark on the project of constructing tourist facilities including water theme parks within "Theme Marine Ranchings" which are under construction in Yeosu City, Jeollanam-do and Jeju City. The marine ranching project which has been implemented by the MIFAFF since 1998, is to create an artificial city like artificial reefs and sea forests for fish in coastal water, and to utilize various kinds of fish as fisheries, tourist and leisure resources by stocking the city with them. Yeosu is expected to have the largest marine ranching with the size of 11,000 hectare compared with 2,500 ha in Tongyeoug, Gyoungsannam-do, 7,500 ha in Taean, Chungcheongnam-do, and 2,300 ha in Jeju. Marine ranchings will be created by fully utilizing local features. To be specific, fisheries resource will be intensively developed in Yeosu and Tongyeong, various ocean resort facilities will be constructed in Jeju and Uljin, and foreshore of the West Sea will be utilized in Taean. The MIFAFF is planning to establish tourist and resort facilities such as tentatively named "Marine centers", water theme parks, facilities for ecology and foreshore experience, and sea fishing piers which are bridge-shaped structures enabling ships to reach a dock in Yeosu, Uljin, Taean, and Jeju except for Tongyeong, The ministry is expected to finish the design for the facilities within this year. A marine center with a pier will be equipped with facilities which can commercialize marine products from marine ranchings after processing them, and promotion exhibits which show marine ranching at a glance. Also, in water theme parks, people can enjoy various kinds of fish and artificial reefs created by utilizing scrapped military vessels and fishing boats. 158.9 billion won will be invested by 2012 for five marine ranching projects. Among the investment funds, 25.6 billion won will be spent on tourist and leisure facilities as well. The ministry intends to launch marine products from marine ranchings within the first half of this year. Yeosu is preparing to launch marine products with the target year of 2010 while Uljin, Taean, and Jeju. set their target year as 2012.