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.

Maturity and spawning of the giant Pacific octopus, Octopus dofleini was investigated based on the samples collected in the coast of Gangwondo, East Sea, from January to December in 2009. Individuals of mature stage had a higher occurrence rate from February toMay, and gonadosomatic index (GSI) also showed a higher value from February toMay than the other months. For that reason, the spawning period was estimated from February to May with the main spawning period from March to May. The total number of eggs in the fecundity (F) ranged from 9,045 in 11.0 kg (TW) to 148,682 in 16.5 kg (TW), which was proportional to total weight (TW), and the relationship between total weight and fecundity was F=0.185×TW2.238 (R2=0.389). The total weight at 50% group maturity (TW0.5) of female was estimated to be 12.2 kg.

외줄낚시에 대한 대문어의 조획기구를 알아내고, 낚시를 개량하기 위하여 수조에서 외줄낚시어구에 대한 대문어의 행동패턴을 비디오카메라로 관찰 조사하였다. 대문어는 돌진하거나 천천히 유영하며 미끼를 잡았다. 돌진할 때에는 두개의 팔로 미끼를 잡은 후 약간 뒤로 물러서서 정지하였고, 천천히 접근 할 때는 한 개의 팔로 미끼를 잡은 후 그 자리에 정지하여 섭이하는 행동을 보였다. 조획은 약간 뒤로 물러서서 섭이할 때보다 그 자리에 정지할 때가 많았다. 평균 체중 1kg의 대문어가 정어리, 대문어, 돼지비계 등을 전량 섭이하는데 소요되는 시간은 각각 1~30분 , 10~50분 , 50분~1시간 이상으로서 미끼의 육질이 질길수록 대문어가 미끼를 섭이하는데 장시간 소요되었다. 조획성능에서는 낚시의 채가 긴 A형낚시보다 채가 짧은 B형낚시가 양호하였으나 어체로부터 낚시를 탈락시키는 데는 B형낚시보다 A형낚시가 용이하였다.