South Gyeongsang Province said on Friday it is converting 20 percent of the farm raised fish it produces to subtropical varieties by 2028, to adapt to rising ocean temperatures.

Currently, more than half of the roughly 190-thousand fish farmed off the coast of the southern province are fish like jacopever and filefish, which are vulnerable to high water temperatures.

In recent years, local fish farms have been devastated by warming waters driven by climate change.

The Gyeongnam Provincial Fisheries Resources Research Institute will test-run a farm to respond to climate change by supplying subtropical varieties of fertilized eggs and young fish every year, focusing on the Threeline grunt and convict grouper fish.

Seas around the Korean Peninsula have more consistently experienced summer warming, causing damages worth 65-point-nine billion won in 2024 and three-point-seven billion won last year in South Gyeongsang Province alone.