The publications are annual reports of the surveys on the seas around the Korean Peninsula, water temperature, salinity, weather, etc., regularly conducted by the Fisheries Research Institute, a government institution established by the Japanese General-Government of Korea in 1921. The earlier reports, published by the Japanese colonial authority from 1928 to 1942, were titled Haeyang josa yobo (Abridged Reports on Hydrographical Observations); those published since 1954 by the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute are titled Haeyang josa yeonbo (Annual Reports on Hydrographical Observations). The latter has been published as an annual bulletin since 1968. The collection of annual reports published between 1928 and 1967 is now widely regarded as a valuable, systematic source of information about the marine environment around the Korean Peninsula since the 1920s.