The Pacific giant octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) is one of the most important species in the East Sea fishery of Korea. The annual production of Pacific giant octopus in 2021 was 3,880 metric ton between Gangwon province and Gyeongsangbuk province. Most of the fishing gears for the octopus fishery were based on behavioral properties such as thigmotaxis and chemotaxis. Wooden octopus box is also one of the fishing gears, which is application of thigmotaxis for the octopus capture in fishing industry. In this study, the tank experiments were designed to examine the behaviour and the effect of surface roughness to the infiltration of the octopus quantitatively. Three different types of octopus boxes were used for the experiments with different surface roughness on the average of 701.6 ㎛, 141.7 ㎛ and 2.09 ㎛ for each gear. 22 trials were conducted from June to September 2021. The normality of the experiments was tested using Shapiro-Wilk normality test (p-value < 0.05). The significance of results was conducted by Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test (Chi-squarded = 21, Degree of freedom = 3, p-value < 0.05). The use of wooden octopus box with rough surface was found to enhance the catch efficiency and observe infiltration behaviour of the octopus frequently.

In this study, for the purpose of reducing the catch of small giant octopus in a net pot, an escape experiment of octopus was performed on five types of escape rings of different sizes. As a result of the experiment, the smallest giant octopus with a weight of 406 g was found to escape from an escape ring with a diameter of 30 mm or larger, and 592 g octopus, a weight similar to the octopus of the current minimum landing weight (600 g), escaped from an escape ring with a diameter of larger than 40 mm. An individual weight with 406 g becomes 39 mm when converted from a diameter of 25 mm circular escape vent; that is, the circumference to the inner diameter of the mesh. It can be inferred that the converted mesh size of 39 mm cannot escape. Logistic regression analysis was performed using a generalized linear model (GLM) to investigate the correlation between the ratio of escape ring size/Mantle diameter (R/MD) and the escape rate. As a result, it was found that there was a significant correlation between the R/MD ratio and the escape rate and that the higher the R/MD ratio, the greater the escape rate. As a result of logistic regression analysis, the R/MD value was denoted 0.520 with the 50% escape rate. In addition, it can be estimated to be about 50 mm when converted to the mesh size. Therefore, in this study, the diameter of the escape ring and the size of the escape possible of the octopus were experimentally considered. It was found that there was a significant correlation.

In this study, the fishery status of the octopus pot fishery in the east coastal sea were investigated, and the fishing performance of each pot shape was compared and analyzed. The fishery status survey was conducted through listening surveys at Jukbyeon Port, Uljin Port and Pohang Daebo Port in Gyeongbuk Province, and the amount of fishing gear used, fishing method, size and loss of octopus pot fishery was investigated. On the east coastal sea, octopus is one of the commercially important fish stocks and is caught in inshore pots, inshore combos, inshore gillnets and offshore pots. Among these fishing methods, pot fishing yields the highest catch. The shape of the pot differs depending on the region. In Uljin (Jukbyeon Port and Hupo Port), Gyeongbuk, rectangular type net pots are mainly used, and in Pohang (Daebo Port) in Gyeongbuk, drum-type pots are mostly used. Enteroctopus dofleini accounts for more than 90% of the catch of octopus. For the octopus fishing performance test by trap type, three types of traps (rectangular pot, drum pot and cylinder pot) were used on the coastal sea of Pohang Daebo. As a result, the total catch by pot shape was shown in the order of rectangular-type pot > drum-type pot > cylinder-type pot. The catch of octopus, the target species, was in the following order: rectangular-type pot > drum-type pot > cylinder-type pot. Such result shows a significant difference (Mann-Whitney test, p<0.05).

Interviews and boarding surveys were conducted in order to understand the actual usage of octopus pot in the coastal composite fishery in Jeollanam-do. According to the results of the interviews conduced by visiting the areas (Goheung, Yeosu and Wando), the number of octopus pots per nine-ton vessel were 30,000-80,000, and the number of daily usage pots were 7,000-10,000. The number of octopus pots per four-ton vessel was 40,000, and the number of daily usage pots were 4,000. As a result of the survey on two octopus pot fishing boats (9.77-ton and 4.99-ton) in Yeosu area, the daily catch weight of 9-ton class vessel was the minimum of 66.9 kg and the maximum of 159.6 kg. The daily catch weight of the four-ton class fishing vessel was from 31.3 kg to maximum 85.6 kg. The average number of octopus pot used per day in the nine-ton class vessel was 6,821 (the minimum of 6,031 and the maximum of 7,697) and 3,181 (the minimum of 2,282 and the maximum of 3,878) in the four-ton class vessel.

This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the octopus pot according to mesh sizes. Entering behavior of Octopus minor and bait (Macrophthalmus japonicus) escape rate on the mesh sizes of the pots were investigated for six times in indoor tank. The sea trials for evaluating the performance of Octopus minor pot to different mesh sizes (22, 20 and 18 mm) were conducted for six times from 2017 to 2018 in the coastal sea of Deukyang Bay, the Republic of Korea. Behavior patterns of contact pot to leaved pot were more frequent than contact pot to bait search. When the octopus contacted to the pot, there was no clear search behavior to distinguish the mesh sizes. Total catch of 46% was accounted for 18 mm pots, followed by 34% at 20 mm and 20% at 22 mm (P < 0.05). Catch per unit effort was calculated as 30 g/pot at 22 mm, 44 g/pot at 20 mm and 59 g/pot at 18 mm. As a result of evaluating 50% selection of mantle length and weight on the mesh sizes, mantle length (mm) and weight (g) were 84.6 and 147.8 in 22 mm, followed by 20 and 18 mm.

In order to replace sardine baits for octopus pot, an efficacy experiment to lure with alternative bait (fermented skate or chicken skin in artificial crab or northern clam) pots and sardine pot were conducted in a circular water tank. The soaking time of the sardine bait was divided into two categories: six days or less and seven days or more. The behavioral response of octopus to the artificial bait pots and sardine pot were investigated. In the comparison of the luring effects between pots with fermented skate inside artificial crab or northern clam and sardine pot, the pot with artificial crab + fermented skate had better results than the other pots in the section distribution (31.6%) and the number of times the pot was entered into (20.0%) (p > 0.05). In the comparison of the luring effects between pots with chicken skin inside artificial crab or northern clam and sardine pot, the pot with northern clam + chicken skin had better results than the other pots in the section distribution (22.6%) and number of times the pot was entered into (55.6%) (p < 0.05). The results were also better compared to those of pot with artificial crab + fermented skate. From these results, it seems that in the luring effect aspect, sardine bait can be replaced with artificial bait consisting of chicken skin inside northern clam.

This study investigated the luring effect of the sardine bait, which is used to catch octopus with pot, as the preliminary study for the development of alternative bait for octopus pot. The soaking time for bait was divided into “5 days or less” and “11 days or longer” The number of times octopus entered the pot with bait and the empty pot was investigated under dark adaptation and light adaptation processes and the distribution of tank section was investigated under light adaptation process. The case of “11 days or longer” sardine soaking time showed higher rate of distribution in the section of pot with bait compared to the case of “5 days or less” In the case of “5 days or less” soaking time, the number of times the octopus entered the pot with bait was similar to that it entered the pot without it even during dark adaptation and light adaptation. However, in the case of “11 days or longer”, the octopus entered the pot with bait more quickly than the pot without bait and more frequently during dark adaptation hours. There were cases where the octopus did not enter any pot. In the case of “5 days or less”, with less decomposition of baits, the octopus entered the empty pot more during light adaptation process, and it appeared that the pot was used as a hideout.

This study aims to investigate effects of the length of the buoy and sand bag line on the loss of webfoot octopus pot. A numerical modeling and simulation was carried out to analyze the process that the pot gear affected by wave using the mass spring model. Through the simulation, tensions of sand bag line under various condition were investigated by length of buoy and sand bag line. The drag force and coefficient k of an artificial shell used in the webfoot octopus pot was obtained from an experiment in a circular water channel, and the coefficient k was applied to the simulation. To verify the accuracy of the simulation model, a simple test was conducted into measuring a rope tension of a hanging shell under flow. Then, the test result was compared with the simulation. The lengths of the buoy line in the simulation were 1.12, 1.41, 1.80, 2.23, 2.69, and 3.17 times of water depth. The lengths of sand bag line were 10, 20, 30, and 40 meters, and conditions of water depth were 8, 15, 22 meters. 4 meter height and 8 second period of wave were applied to all simulations. As a results, the tension of the sand bag line was decreased as the buoy and sand bag line were increased. The minimum tension of the sand bag line was appeared in conditions that the length of the buoy line is twice of water depth and the sand bag line length is over 40 meters (except in case of depth 8 meters.).

This paper presents the mesh selectivity of a net pot for common octopus Octopus minor for the sustainable resources management of common octopus. The filed experiments were carried out the total 10 times in the southern part of coastal sea in Korea from March to May in 2010 using net pots of five different mesh sizes (16, 18, 20, 22 and 26mm). The test of size selectivity, indicated a 50% selection value on the logistic master curve of 3.195, whereby 50% of individuals with a mantle size of approximately 70.3mm selected a mesh size of 22mm. Considering that 50% of common octopus entering sexual maturity have a mantle size of 70.6mm, the optimum mesh size should be equal to, or larger than 22mm.

Biodegradable octopus pot was developed to reduce plastic pollution problem in the sea and fishing trouble between fishermen. It can be expect to recycle other wasted biodegrade fishing gear. Experimental fishing was carried out to understand the difference in fishing efficiency between Polyethylene (PE) octopus pots and biodegradable (Polybutylene Succinate and Polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate) octopus pots which was tried to make in this study in the sea. There were caught by 237 numbers of fishing during the experimental period. Among the 237 numbers of fishing, 160 or 67.5% were PE pots which were more than the biodegradable pots. A comparison of the monthly catches between the PE pots and biodegradable pots shows that the catches were overall higher in the PE pots than in the other pots. The result is very similar with the comparison of total catches by each type of the pots. In terms of bycatch, the number of species, amount of catches and the number of fishing with bycatch were more significant in the biodegradable pots than in the PE pots.

In order to study the catch situation of the octopus pot fishery in the coastal waters of Gangneung, catch quantities and weight per month and depth, the soaking time & loss of fishing gear were studied based on 62 fishing times (1 set consisted of 150 pots which is equivalent to 1 fishing time) over a period of 10 months from February to December 2003 using commercial fishing vessels and training ships. The monthly CPUE was generally high in the months of june - September, and during this period July showed the highest quantity (134g/pot, 19.21kg/haul). In consideration of the fact that octopus below the weight of 2kg is protected in foreign countries, the majority of the catch was small with 76% (486 octopuses) below 1kg. The octopus catch quantity was high in depth of more than 40m, and the average catch number per set of pots in depths of over 50m was the highest with 13 octopuses. CPUE(g/pot) was the highest at a depth of over 60m recording 101. In terms of catch quantity per soaking time (4-18 days) the highest was on the 7th day, and 13-18 days also recorded high catches, and this suggests the possibility of ghost - fishing with the loss of fishing gear. Loss of fishing gear was the highest in terms of loss frequency and amount at depths of 20-30m. Consequently, it seems that octopus pot fishing at depths of more than 30m would relieve friction with other types of fishing and increase fishing efficiency.