A study for species composition and abundance of the fish assemblages in the eastern Jinhae Bay, Korea was conducted using monthly larval collection by a RN80 net from October, 2010 to September, 2011. Of all the 45 species collected, the dominant species were Clupea pallasii, Hexagrammos otakii, Pholis fangi and Engraulis japonicus. Clupea pallasii, Hexagrammos otakii, Pholis fangi in winter and examined Engraulis japonicus, Acanthogobius sp., Parablennius yatabei, and Tridentiger trigonocephalus in summer appeared seasonally. Popoulation characteristic by stations was not clear seasonally and spatially, and appearance aspects of dominant species were similar by stations. Compared our results with other studies in the South Sea, dominant species and their appearance period were similar to their spawning period. Finally, the appearance period of the larvae in the South Sea was closely resulted to spawning period rather than the regional characteristic.

The feeding habits of larval (5.0~27.0 mm SL) Clupea pallasii were examined and 1,523 individuals were collected from November 2010 to March 2011 in the coastal water of Eastern Jinhae Bay, Korea. Larval C. pallasii were fed mainly on copepods that constituted 55.2% in IRI. Monogeneans were the second largest prey component, another prey items tintinnids, cladocerans and ostracoda. The results of analysis in ontogenetic changes exhibit high during the daytime, two small size classes (≤10 mm, 10~15 mm) mainly fed copepods. while the percentage of coperpods decreased, monogeneans ratio increased in 15~20 mm size class. Feeding rate in diel difference of larval C. pallasii were high during the daytime.