A pilot study on estimating the biomass of chub mackerel and jack mackerel in the northwestern sea of Jeju Island using trawl survey and frequency characteristics
In September and October 2020, combined acoustic and trawl surveys were conducted in the northwestern sea of Jeju Island. In the survey area, a region, so called Jeju region, was designated to esimate the biomass of chub mackerel and jack mackerel using a trawl survey method and frequency difference method. In the September survey, the weight ratios of jack mackerel and chub mackerel to the total catch were 24.6% and 2.8%, respectively, and in the October survey, those ratios were 24.9% and 20.7%, which were used to calculate their biomass (trawl survey). Using the frequency difference range (–8 to –3dB) corresponding to two species in 120 and 200 kHz, their biomass was estimated (frequency difference method). As a result, the biomass of two species from the trawl method was 3252.3 tons in September and 5777.0 tons in October. The estimated biomass by the frequency difference method was 4926.6 tons in September and 7521.5 tons in October. It was the first trial to estimate the biomass of two species using the trawl and frequency differencing methods in South Korea although there were some differences between two methods. In addition, horizontal distributions of acoustic backscattering strength over the entire survey area were mapped.