This study analyzed the reproductive biology, fishing characteristics and changes in fishing business of Liparis tanakae, snailfish collected from September to March. It was the period when they were mainly caught from 2018 to 2020. The average length was generally small in September and October and was large in January and February. The average body weight was generally around 1,500 g and the average body weight in autumn was lower and in winter was higher. The sex ratio of male and female was 0.40:0.60 (χ 2 test, p < 0.05). The spawning period was estimated from October to February and the main spawning period was from December to February through the GSI. The egg diameter of matured staged female L. tanakae was 0.11-1.48 mm, which was the main spawning period and the relationship between body weight and fecundity was F = 1849TL0.1093 (r2 = 0.2401). The monthly catch of L. tanakae was high from November to February, the time of migrating to the coastal area. Coastal gillnet fishery showed the highest percentage of all fisheries catching Liparis spp. Liparis spp. were caught at a high rate in winter in Chungnam, Jeonbuk, Jeonnam and Gyeongnam region, and revenue and cost was increased since 2017. Assuming a situation where there is no catch of Liparis spp., the fishing profit that can be obtained was the highest in Gyeongnam region and the dependence on fishing of Liparis spp. by coastal gillnet fishery was high.

Thousands of pelagic and demersal fishes inhabit the waters around Korea and many of them are overexploited. One of the reasons is technological development, which increases the efficiency of the vessels continuously. The analysis was conducted to identify the change of fishing power index to develop the vessel and gear technology that may have improved the fishing efficiency of the otter trawl fishery from 1960s to 2010s. Gross tonnage was decreased stably, but horse power was increased annually. The perimeter of net mouth was somewhat longer, but little changed. Color fish finder was utilized from the mid-1960s. Hydraulic net drum were introduced in the early 1990s, and supply rate was gradually increased. Surveys on the supply and upgrading of fishing equipment utilized visiting research. Therefore, the relative fishing power index in the trawl fishery increased about two to three times in the 2010s compared to the 1980s. The results are expected to contribute to reasonable fisheries stock management.

The small yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis) is one of the representative high-class fish species in Korea. The catch of small yellow croaker in adjacent water fisheries has been continuously decreasing from 59,226 tons in 2011 to 19,271 tons in 2016. The small yellow croaker is caught by gillnet, stow net and bottom trawl, among which about 55~65% is caught by gillnet. For the sustainable use of small yellow croaker, the fishing power of small yellow croaker drift gillnet is very important. Therefore, the change of fishing power index were analyzed to identify the development of the vessel and gear technology that may have improved the fishing efficiency of the small yellow croaker drift gillnet fishery from 1960s to 2010s. Gross tonnage and horse power per fishing vessel was increased annually. The mesh size was 75.0 mm in the 1960s, but reduced to 60.6 mm in the 1980s and to 51.0 mm in the 2000s. In the 1960s, it was hauled out by manpower. However, the net hauler were modernized and supply rate was also increased since 1970. Due to the mechanization of the net hauler, the number (length) of used net gradually increased from 1.5 km in the 1960s to 7.5 km in the mid-1980s and to 15 km in 2010. Colour fish finders and positioning system were introduced and utilized from the mid-1980s. Surveys on the supply and upgrading of fishing equipment utilized visiting research. Therefore, the relative fishing power index in the small yellow croaker drift gillnet fishery increased from 1.0 in 1980 to 0.8 in 1970, to 1.1 in 1990, to 1.6 in 2000 and to 1.9 in 2010. The results are expected to contribute to reasonable fisheries stock management of the small yellow croaker drift gillnet fishery.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) selected fishing as the most dangerous group of jobs in the world, and it is well known in Korea as a 4D industry. Offshore large purse seine accounts for the largest portion of the fishing industry in the coastal region with high death rate and the accident rate. The repeated disaster rate survey by the Korea Maritime Institute (KMI) shows offshore large purse seiner is the highest at 22.3 percent and coastal gill nets and offshore stow net are following at 12.4 percent and 11.9 percent in order. Therefore, risk factors occurring in offshore large purse seiners were analyzed based on data from the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives (NFFC) for three years from 2015 to 2017 and 4M (Man, Machine, Media, Management) 3E (Engineering, Education, Enforcement) techniques were used to provide a safe fishing environment. The number of accidents on offshore large purse seiners each year was more than 150, and the number of accidents on every fishing boats was as high as 17 percent in 2015. If the accident rate and the risk level were divided by insurance, the accident resulting from contact with machinery was the highest, and the risk of a contact with gear was low but frequently occurring. This was caused by collisions and contact with gear in situations where death and disappearance risk are not high, and accident types in situations where death and loss risk are considered to be contact with machinery, falls or other accidents. Through these analysis techniques, the frequency and risk of each type of accident on a offshore large purse seiners can be demonstrated, and it is expected to raise awareness of a safer fishing environment and contribute to the reduction of accidents.

Squid is one of the important fisheries resources in Korea. Therefore, squid has been designated and managed as a target species of total allowable catch (TAC) since 2007, but the catch amount is gradually decreasing. The analysis was conducted to identify the change of relative fishing power index to develop the vessel and gear technology that may have improved the fishing efficiency of the offshore squid jigging fishery from 1960s to 2010s. Gross tonnage per fishing vessel increased with the increase in size until 1990, but then gradually decreased to 41.0 tons in 2000 and 37.1 tons in 2010. The illuminating power (energy consumption) by fishing lamps increased to 180 kW in 2005 and stabilized to 120 kW in 2015. Jigging machine started to be supplied to fishing vessels from the early 1970s, and fish finders began to be supplied in the early 1980s and gradually increased. Therefore, the relative fishing power index in the offshore squid jigging fishery increased from 1.0 in 1980 to 1.1 in 1990, to 3.5 in 2000 and to 2.5 in 2010, but the increment rate slowed down gradually. The results are expected to contribute to reasonable fisheries stock management.

The age and growth of pointhead flounder, Hippoglossoides pinetorum caught by gill nets was analyzed in this study from March 2015 to July 2017. New annuli were formed in H. pinetorum otoliths annually, and the boundary was set between the opaque and translucent zones from March and April. The relationships between total length (TL) and body weight (BW) were BW = 0.0025 TL3.409 (r2 = 0.9551) for females and BW = 0.0057 TL3.138 (r2 = 0.9163) for males. In this study, the ring of pointhead flounder, H. pinetorum was formed between 3 and 8 for females and between 3 and 6 for males. Total length (TL) and otolith radius (OR) were measured as follows: TL = 7.142 OR + 0.769 (r2 = 0.793) for females and TL = 6.498 OR + 1.706 (r2 = 0.652) for males. The mean distances of first ring (r1) were 0.92 mm and 0.91 mm for females and males respectively. The TLs at the time of annulus formation, back-calculated from the otolith-length relationship by reference to the von Bertalanffy growth curves, were Lt = 43.59 (1-e-0.15(t+0.007)) for females and Lt = 28.13 (1-e-0.26(t+0.006)) for males while the growth between female and male was different.

Lots of fishery stocks are overexploited and the overcapacity exists in Korean fishing fleets. One of the reasons is technological development, which increases the efficiency of the vessels continuously. The analysis was conducted to identify the change of fishing power index to develop the vessel and gear technology that may have improved the fishing efficiency of the offshore large powered purse seine fishery from 1960s to 2010s. Gross tonnage and horse power per fishing vessel was increased annually. Fishing gear material was changed to the knotless webbing to settle faster. Fishing equipments was modernized and supply rate was also increased. Therefore the relative fishing power index in the offshore large powered purse seine fishery increased from 0.4 in 1970 to 1.0 in 1980, to 1.5 in 2000 and to 1.6 in 2010, but the rate of increase slowed down gradually. The results are expected to contribute to reasonable fishery stock management.

The survey was conducted to investigate biomass and distribution of fisheries resources using a quantitative echo sounder and a fixed gillnet around Marado coast of Jeju to obtain the scientific basic data for dispute resolution with a large purse seine fishery and coastal fishing and policy establishment of reasonable fisheries resources. Hydroacoustic surveys were conducted six times (November 28~29, 2015 (night), February 23~24, 2016 (night) and March 3~4, 2016 (night/day), March 30~31, 2016 (night/day)) using a quantitative echo sounder. The pelagic fish densities were relatively higher around Marado in November 2015, February 2016 and March 3~4, 2016. However, demersal fish densities were relatively higher in Jeju coastal waters on March 30~31, 2016. Catch data using fixed gill net were used to calculate biomass. Based on the hydroacoustic data, fish length-weight function and target strength information of dominant fish, the biomass of fishes were estimated as follow: 5.64 ton CV = 70.2% at night on November 28-29 2015, 7.14 ton CV = 35.8% of pelagic fish and 530.77 ton CV = 34.6% of demersal fishes at night on February 23-24 2016, 2.34 ton CV = 56.7% of pelagic fish and 571.93 ton CV = 40.3% of demersal fish at daytime, 1.39 ton CV = 48.4% of pelagic fish and 194.59 ton CV = 54.3% of demersal fish at night on March 3~4 2016, 0.37 ton CV = 72.9% of pelagic fish and 338.79 ton CV = 99.7% of demersal fish at daytime, 0.24 ton CV = 21.3% of pelagic fish and 68.61 ton CV = 53.8% of demersal fish at night on March 30~31 2016.

This study analyzed annual catch trend during 45 years and monthly catch of the least 10 years (2005∼2014) for chub mackerel caught in the Korean coastal waters. To determine fishing status of chub mackerel, fork length measurements were conducted at least twice every week for 100 individuals randomly selected at the Busan Cooperative Fish Market from January of 2012 to December of 2014; and biological characteristics and proximate composition (moisture, protein, fat, ash) were analyzed by length class (I∼IV) on a monthly basis from January to December of 2014. Monthly catch trend showed low level below 5,000 mt from February to July, whereas high level above 15,000 mt from October to December. For the period between 2012 and 2014, annual average catch proportion of juvenile were relatively high at 68.1%, 53.1% and 53.2% from January to April, before spawning season, while those were low at 21.5%, 20.7% and 29.12% from June to November. As for the change in the proximate composition per 100 g of muscle, protein and ash did not change much by seasons and length class, whereas fat and moisture contents showed large fluctuations and complementary relationship between the two factors. Regardless of length class, monthly average fat content, containing Omega-3, showed the lowest at 7.18 g in April and highest at 19.27 g in December, which exhibited 2.6 times difference from one another. Regardless of fishing seasons, fat content by length class were 19.06 g for the class I and 6.43 g for the class IV, which showed three times difference. Fat contents of the class I were high at 26.97 g and 27.19 g in November and December, while low at 8.37 g and 9.99 g in April and May. Especially, fat contents from January to May were 5.0 g, which was the lowest. Therefore, it is expected that consumer could indirectly contribute fisheries management through their understanding and wise consumption based on fishing status and fluctuation of proximate composition.

The multi-frequency characteristics of anchovy schools were investigated using six acoustic lines collected at 38 and 120 kHz while a primary trawl survey was conducted from 14 April and 18 April of 2014 in off the coast of Tongyeong and Geo–je. Here, the frequency characteristics mean ΔMVBS that is the difference of Mean Volume Backscattering Strength at two frequencies. To use the characteristics effectively, the optimal cell size (10×2 m) was determined by examining several different cell sizes in consideration with the shapes of fish schools and the ΔMVBS pattern. By examining 6 histograms of ΔMVBS, afternoon groups were occupied more in the ΔMVBS range of –6~–4 dB than that of –4~–2 dB, comparing to morning groups. The ΔMVBS range of the morning groups was between –16.9 dB and 11.6 dB, and that of the afternoon groups –16.7 dB and 13.0 dB. The average and standard deviation were –3.9±3.6 dB in the morning and –4.1±3.4 dB in the afternoon, suggesting that morning groups were 2 dB higher than afternoon groups. The ΔMVBS range of all anchovy schools regardless of morning and afternoon was between –16.9 dB and 13.0 dB, their average ΔMVBS was –4.1±3.5 dB. The characteristics can support to identify anchovy species in the waters where multiple fish species are distributed. It is hoped that this study presents the availability and benefit of acoustic data from a primary trawl survey.

Anchovy (Engraulis japonicus) is one of the most important species in the South Sea of South Korea. In order to estimate the biomass of anchovy, acoustic surveys, concurrently with trawling, were conducted in April, July, and September of 2013 and February of 2014 off the coast of Tongyeong and Yeosu. However, anchovies were found only during spring (April) and winter (February) surveys. To display only anchovy species confirmed by trawls on empty spaced echograms, virtual echograms were created. Three target strength (TS) values of anchovy were used: TS_z = 20 log L – (20/3) log (1+z/10) – 67.6 (Zhao et al.), TS_y =20 log L – 72.9 (Yoon et al.), TS_f = 20 log L – 71.9 (Foote). For anchovy schools combined with other species e.g., hairtail, squid, and Korean pomfret, their TS values were used to calculate an average TS. As a result, the anchovy biomass in the winter survey was approximately 75,000 tons (TS_z), 90,000 tons (TS_f), 114,000 tons (TS_y), respectively. The biomass in spring was 9,000 tons (TS_z), 9,200 tons (TS_f), 10,000 tons (TS_y). The sampling variance of spring was 70% and of winter was 30%. In order to manage anchovy resource sustainably, larvae and adult anchovy should be separately surveyed, the optimal area, date, and time for acoustic survey should be investigated, and the biomass survey should be done for relatively long and regular base.

Small yellow croaker is one of the important stocks in Korean waters. In this study, we conducted sea trials to estimate optimum height of a drift gill net for effective fishing of small yellow croaker. In the trial using existing net which has 9.2m in height, there was 22 species (1,180 fishes, 99.9kg) caught. The catch (in individuals) of small yellow croaker, especially larger fishes (over 22cm in FL), was higher as part of net height is higher, while the number of species bycaught and the catch of those species were higher as part of net height is lower. In the trial using extension net which has 18.4m in height, there was 27 species (2,030 fishes, 151.7kg). It showed same pattern with existing net in the section I to III, however, in the section IV which is over 13.8m of net height, the catch sharply decreased. The number of species bycaught and the catch of those species using extension net were also same as results using existing net. It showed that section III (9.2－13.8m) where is upper-middle part of the net has caught most of catch and large fishes having over 22cm in length. Through these results, it is judged that the setting depth of the net where is 4.6－13.8m above the sea bottom is the best to reduce bycatch and catch much more large size fishes, and the catch per net is proportional to filtering area of net. Therefore the Fisheries Resource Management Act (the clause 1, article 10) on the amount of usage for offshore drift gill net need to be considered not only length of a net but also net height.

This study identified problems of the existing ecosystem-based fisheries assessment approach, and suggested new methods for scoring risk and for the estimation of fishery risk index. First, risk scores of zero to two for target and limit reference points for each indicator were replaced by those of zero to three, and the risk scores were calculated from new formulae which were developed in this study. Second, a new method for estimating fishery risk index (FRI) was developed in this study, considering the level of indicators. New method was applied to the Korean large purse seine fishery, large pair trawl fishery and drag net fishery. More precise and detailed risk scores were obtained from the new method, which can explain the risks by the wider range of both risk levels for 'better than target' and 'beyond limit'. The new method for estimating FRI could avoid the basic problem related with duplicated computations of fishery-level indicators, which improved the estimated FRI to be more accurate. Also, a method for estimating variance of FRI using the bootstrap was proposed in this study.

Estimations on population ecological parameters of the small yellow croaker, Larimichthy polyactis in Korean waters, were calculated using catch data based on coastal and offshore drift gillnet fishery and biological data from 2010 to 2012. The population ecological parameters included survival rate, instantaneous coefficient of natural and fishing mortality and age/length at first capture. The survival rate (S) of the small yellow croaker was estimated to be 0.20 from catch curve method. The instantaneous coefficient of natural mortality (M) was estimated to be 0.46/year with Alverson and Carney method. The instantaneous coefficient of total mortality (Z) was 1.611/year, used to be transformed the survival rate and the instantaneous coefficient of fishing mortality (F) were 1.153/year. The length at first capture (Lc) was 19.1cm by Pauly method, and the age at first capture (tc) was 1.303 years of the small yellow croaker by the coastal and offshore drift gillnet fishery.

It was turned out by the beam trawl survey in 2009 that flora of three phylum 16 species and fauna of eight taxa 68 families 97 species were inhabited in the Seomjin River estuary and western coastal waters of Namhae island. Winter season showed the most various appearance of species with 63 species and markedly several kinds of algae species, while summer season showed the lowest number of species with 44 species. However, the indices of species diversity and evenness were highest in summer, and vice versa in winter. Major dominant species were Crangon hakodatei, Leiognathus nuchalis, Asterias amurensis, Thryssa kammalensis, Luidia quinaria, Amblychaeturichthys hexanema, Oratosquilla oratoria, Charybdis bimaculata, Cynoglossus joyneri, Pennahia agentata. The 10 dominant species occupied at 81.4% of catch in number and 49.0% of catch in weight. There were seasonal fluctuations and differences by station in the Seomjin River estuary and western coastal waters of Namhae island, which brought to the difference of length structures, that is, bigger-sized individuals of major dominant species at station A (near to river estuary) than station C (near to ocean). Species compositions by season and by station were separated to two groups. Winter season showed a separated species composition from other seasons and station A exhibited a different species composition from other stations, which was located at near to the Seomjin River estuary.