Giant pacific octopus, Enteroctopus dofleini, is a large mollusk distributed in the East Sea of Korea. In this study, the catch status of giant pacific octopus by drift line fishery and the effect of sea temperature on fishing ground were investigated in Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do, which is the central coast of the East Sea. The average catch of giant pacific octopus in Gangwon-do was 1,570 tons over the past ten years, and it accounted for 21% in 2008 and 44% in 2021 compared to the total catch in the East Sea during the same period. Such data indicates that the catch in Gangwon-do has recently increased. In this study area, giant pacific octopus weighing 1.1-5.0 kg dominated accounting for 56% of the total individuals, and followed by those weighing 1 kg or less. However, the ratio of catch of giant pacific octopus over 5.1 kg tended to increase in 2021, which is thought to be related to the sea temperature that affected the fishing ground. The main depth of fishing ground was from 21 m to 50 m in this area and fishing grounds were widely distributed throughout the season except summer. Fishing ground was formed with the conditions of bottom sea temperature under 10℃ and was diminished by moving of giant pacific octopus to deeper depth with conditions of bottom sea temperature over 18℃.

A survey on the fishing gear for octopus drift-line fishing was done in Gangwon-do, Sacheon, Gyeongnam and Hokkaido, Japan, while a survey on the environments of fishing grounds used data from January to August from the Korea east coast farming forecast system of Donghae Fisheries Research and Development Institute. The present situation of fishing was examined with boats engaging in drift-line fishing from March to August in the coastal waters along Gangneung. The fishing tackle for octopus drift-line fishing was made manually, and the size, shape, and weight of the hook and number of shooting used vary according to the fishing time and region. Lead is used as the material for sinkers. As bait, pork fat with skin is mostly used in Gangwon-do. The temperature of the bottom water layer in the coastal fishing ground of Gangneung from April to June ranges from 3.2-12.4℃, which is the optimal temperature for octopuses. During July and August, the temperature ranges from 5.0-20.6℃. The maximum difference between day and night temperatures reached up to 9.2℃. Salinity is generally stable at 33.2-35.324.6%˚, which does not affect the inhabitation of octopuses. The octopus catch reached its peak from May to July, while most octopuses weighed less than 1 kg (76.7%). The results show that it is effective to carry out octopus drift-line fishing up to a depth of 40 meters; and that the maximum number of octopuses per line is obtained with an operation time of six hours.