Drift gillnet fishery for neon flying squid in the North pacific was one of the major pelagic fisheries of Korea until 1992, its annual catch was 79, 000M/T as average during 1988-1992, but moratoriumed since 1993 according to the decision of UN. Therefore, for the developing of the new fishing gear for the squid, the seven types of rip hook by automatic squid jigging machine were experimented by the korean research vessel Pusan 851 (G/T 1.126, 2.600 PS) in the North Pacific (38 ˚30'-43 ˚N, 152 ˚E-178 ˚W) from July 6. 1993 to August 31. 1993. The investigation on catch rate, dropout rate, and catch condition of the rip hooks related to the fishing lamp power for aggregating the squid were carried out during the period. The results obtained are as follows: The composition of catch by automatic squid jigging machine was 83.9% for neon flying squid. 15.5% for boreopacific gonate squid. 0.6% for boreal clubhook squid, and 0.01% for luminous flying squid. The catch rate of neon flying squid was 94.6% in 13.6-18.3℃ of surface water temperature and 5.4% in others. The higher catch rate of neon flying squid was made in the range 13.6-18.3℃ of temperature at the surface and about 10℃ of temperature at the 100m layer. The CPUE of neon flying squid in the 13.6-18.3℃ of surface water temperature was ranged 0.8-11.8kg (8.7kg as average). The mantle length and body weight of neon flying squid caught in the experiment were ranged 18.3-51.3 cm, 140-3, 980g and mean mantle length and mean body weight were 29.4cm, 972g respectively. The catch rate of neon flying squid was the highest at dawn with a value of 25.0% of the total catch. The body weight of neon flying squid caught by the D type hooks was 1.7 times more than that of the A type hooks. The dropout rate of neon flying squid caught by the seven types hooks was 7.9-57.5% (19.0% as average), and dropout rate of the D type hooks was 7.9% with 2.7 times decrease than that of the A type hooks. The catch efficiency of small sized neon flying squid in case of using on-off switch method on fishing lamp in 15 minutes intervals was 2.6 times higher than that of the on-switch method with same fishing lamp power.

• 오희국