The Korea Coast Guard has held its first-ever artificial intelligence (AI) competition this year, selecting three outstanding projects—including illegal fishing prediction and danger alerts for fishing vessels—that can be put to immediate use in the field. Attention now turns to whether the effort will move beyond technology development into maritime safety services that the public can feel firsthand.
 [코리안투데이] 바다 안전에 AI를 더하다 해양경찰청 첫 AI 경진대회 개최 © 장형임 기자 |
The Korea Coast Guard announced that it held the “2026 Korea Coast Guard AI Competition” for about 40 days starting May 18 (Mon.), aiming to produce tangible results in its AI transformation (AX).
 [코리안투데이] 바다 안전에 AI를 더하다 해양경찰청 첫 AI 경진대회 개최 © 장형임 기자 |
Held for the first time this year, the competition opened its call for entries this past May and received a total of 55 projects, including 28 in the development and application category and 27 in the idea and planning category. After narrowing the field to 10 projects through a first-round document review, the Korea Coast Guard held a second-round presentation evaluation on July 9, judging entries on criteria such as field applicability and innovation, to select the three final award winners.
Most of the presented works combined generative AI with public data to create projects that can be felt in the actual field. The Grand Prize (first place) went to “AI-Based Intelligent Illegal Fishing Prediction and Targeting Analysis System,” proposed by Sergeant Jin Woo-ram of the Seogwipo Coast Guard Station. The Excellence Award (second place) went to the “Sea, the Signal of the Day” app by Sergeant Shin Jin-seop of the Jeju Coast Guard Station, which lets users check various maritime data in one place in a customized way, while the Encouragement Award (third place) went to Sergeant Kim Yong-bin of the Pohang Coast Guard Station for his “AI-Based Danger Alert System for Single-Person Fishing Vessels Through Ship Track Data Analysis.”
 [코리안투데이] 바다 안전에 AI를 더하다 해양경찰청 첫 AI 경진대회 개최 © 장형임 기자 |
The selected projects are significant in that they focus on using data to thoroughly fill the blind spots at sea—ranging from establishing order in fishing operations to protecting the safety of single-person fishing vessels that tend to be overlooked—areas that had been difficult to monitor with manpower alone.
 [코리안투데이] 바다 안전에 AI를 더하다 해양경찰청 첫 AI 경진대회 개최 © 장형임 기자 |
The Korea Coast Guard plans to expand follow-up support for the winning projects, including opportunities to advance to the nationwide AI competition (March–December) hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and to take part in an AI hackathon. It also plans to work with relevant departments so that these projects can be used in the actual field, linking them to field validation and administrative service upgrade programs. An AI hackathon is a portmanteau of “hacking” and “marathon,” referring to a process of conceiving ideas and producing results with AI within a limited time.
 [코리안투데이] 바다 안전에 AI를 더하다 해양경찰청 첫 AI 경진대회 개최 © 장형임 기자 |
“This competition was a meaningful challenge that expanded the points of contact where AI technology can be applied in the field,” said Jang In-sik, acting Commissioner General of the Korea Coast Guard. “We hope the participating teams’ creative ideas will be realized in the actual field and lead to innovative services that the public can experience firsthand.”
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