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℃.

The Pacific giant octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) is one of the most important species in the East Sea fishery of Korea. The annual production of Pacific giant octopus in 2021 was 3,880 metric ton between Gangwon province and Gyeongsangbuk province. Most of the fishing gears for the octopus fishery were based on behavioral properties such as thigmotaxis and chemotaxis. Wooden octopus box is also one of the fishing gears, which is application of thigmotaxis for the octopus capture in fishing industry. In this study, the tank experiments were designed to examine the behaviour and the effect of surface roughness to the infiltration of the octopus quantitatively. Three different types of octopus boxes were used for the experiments with different surface roughness on the average of 701.6 ㎛, 141.7 ㎛ and 2.09 ㎛ for each gear. 22 trials were conducted from June to September 2021. The normality of the experiments was tested using Shapiro-Wilk normality test (p-value < 0.05). The significance of results was conducted by Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test (Chi-squarded = 21, Degree of freedom = 3, p-value < 0.05). The use of wooden octopus box with rough surface was found to enhance the catch efficiency and observe infiltration behaviour of the octopus frequently.

In order to manage and rebuild fishery resources, the fishing effort should be controlled effectively. Especially in the setting up of the proper level of fishing efforts, economic standards as well as biological standards must be carefully considered to promote the sustainable and economically viable development of fisheries. This study is aimed to estimate optimal fishing effort of giant octopus by combo fishing which uses longline in Gangwon with statistical data. The result showed that current fishing effort is 28% higher than EMEY. Unit fishing cost for each voyage will be 27% lower and unit fishing profit will be 17% higher than the current situation when the fishing effort meets EMEY. Although current fishing effort is similar to the EMSY, current catching is 16% higher than MSY and 22% higher than MEY.