The United States enforces the seafood import regulations so-called the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), and by 2023, all exports of aquatic products and processed fish products by fisheries which have not obtained an “Comparability Finding” from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be completely banned. Therefore, to respond to the US MMPA, it is critical to identify technologies and methods used in worldwide for reducing bycatch of marine mammals. In particular, marine mammals are frequently caught in five fisheries (trawl, gill net, trap, stow net and set net) in Korea, which is facing a great challenge. This study presented bycatch reduction methods by five fisheries, classified the methods by country, and suggested appropriate reduction methods which can be applied in Korea.

The accurate estimation of fish assemblages is highly dependent on the sampling gear used for sampling. We used data from 15 sampling sites along the Nakdong River, which is a large river in South Korea, to identify differences in assemblages and sizes of freshwater fishes collected with either cast nets or gill nets, the two most commonly used sampling gear in South Korea. The two gears differed in the fish assemblages they captured, with more species caught by gill nets. Further, due to its tighter mesh size, the cast net caught significantly smaller fishes than the gill nets (independent t-test, p<0.05). We found the cast net to be appropriate for species that inhabit shallow (less than 2 m) and open water, but inappropriate for deep water, habitats with plant beds, and nocturnal species. Thus, cast net sampling is not efficient in a large river environment, and a combination of sampling methods is more suitable for understanding fish assemblages in such habitats. In general, appropriate selection of fishing methods to specific habitats is necessary to improve data quality and minimize the misrepresentation of environmental conditions.

As a series of fundamental researches on the development of an automatic identification monitoring system for fishing gear. Firstly, the study on the installation method of automated identification buoy for the coastal improvement net fishing net with many loss problems on the west coast was carried out. Secondly, the study was conducted find out how to install an automatic identification buoy for coastal gill net which has the highest loss rate among the fisheries. GPS for fishing was used six times in the coastal waters around Seogwipo city in Jeju Island to determine the developmental status and underwater behavior to conduct a field survey. Next, a questionnaire was administered in parallel on the type of loss and the quantity and location of fishing gear to be developed and the water transmitter. In the field experiment, the data collection was possible from a minimum of 13 hours, ten minutes to a maximum of 20 hours and ten minutes using GPS, identifying the development status and underwater behavior of the coastal gillnet fishing gear. The result of the survey showed that the loss of coastal net fishing gear was in the following order: net (27.3%), full fishing gear (24.2%), buoys, and anchors (18.2%). The causes were active algae (50.0%), fish catches (33.3%) and natural disasters (12.5%). To solve this problem, the installation method is to attach one and two electronic buoys to top of each end of the fishing gear, and one underwater transmitter at both ends of the float line connected to the anchor. By identifying and managing abnormal conditions such as damage or loss of fishing gear due to external factors such as potent algae and cutting of fishing gear, loss of fishing gear can be reduced. If the lost fishing gear is found, it will be efficiently collected.

The mesh selectivity of hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus) caught by coastal drift gill net was examined in field experiments with three different mesh sizes (45, 50 and 55 mm) from October to November, 2013 in the coastal areas of south-west of Jeju province. The mesh selectivity tests were conducted with the experimental net to be set middle part of conventional driftnets. The mesh selectivity tests were carried out the total of four times. The selectivity curve was estimated by the Kitahara’s and Fujimori’s method. In the results, the catch number of hairtail was 653 (125.8 kg) and occupied 34.8% in total catches weight. The optimal mesh size for 50% selection on the minimum landing size (180 mm, AL) and the first maturity size (260 mm, AL) of hairtail were estimated as 47.2 mm and 64.5 mm by master selectivity curves, respectively.

The species composition and abundance variations of fishery resources in the adjacent marine ranching area, Tongyeong, Korea, were investigated by shrimp trawl, gill net, and longline during the period of July, September, and October in 2016. During the study period, the total catch were 8,522.9 kg with 34 species from the shrimp trawl, 32 species from the gill net, and nine species from the longline. The dominant species were different by gear, which were Hypodytes rubripinnis and Parapercis sexfasciata in the shrimp trawl, Platycephalus indicus and Raja kenojei in the gill net, and Conger myriaster and Scomber Japonicus in the longline. In terms of spatial distribution, Yongchodo showed the highest total catch in number as well as of in weight while Jukdo showed the lowest total catch in number and Bijindo showed the lowest total catch in weight. The amount of demersal fish resources in the survey area estimated as 301 ha, was 99,396 individuals which was converted to be 8,552.9 kg. The amount of demersal fish resources by gear were of trawling area, which area is 127 ha, were 76,251 and 3,489.5 kg, 74 ha in the gill net and longline survey area was 16,213 and 3,457.3 kg, and the other 100 ha area was 6,932 and 1,606.1 kg. In this study, the minimum resources for demersal fish is 61,687 and 4,265.2 kg, and the maximum is 149,439 and 14,197.9 kg.

The objective of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the influence of the netting hanging ratio on fishing performance of gillnet. A total of six tests was carried out using three kinds of gillnets with different horizontal hanging ratios (0.3, 0.5 and 0.7) on the basis commercial gillnet of mesh size of 60 mm used in Yeosu Dolsan. As a result of the test fishing operation, catches of the net with hanging ratio 0.3 and the shortest float length was 1.34 times larger than the net with hanging ratio 0.7. The caught species in experimental testes was lager in the net with hanging ratio 0.3 than the net with hanging ratio 0.7. The catch rate per unit area (CPUE) is on the silver croaker with the largest catches in tests as follows. The net with hanging ratio 0.3 net was 89.45 g/m2, hanging ratio 0.5 net was 41.63 g/m2, and hanging ratio 0.7 net was 24.50 g/m2. The net with hanging ratio 0.3 (float line length of 45 m) exhibited the largest CPUE value.

The species composition and variation in abundance of fishery resources near Oenarodo, Go-heung Peninsula, Korea, were investigated by gill net, trap net, and longline in May, July, and October 2015 and 2016. During the study period, the total catch included 14 species in the gill net, 11 species in the trap net, and 4 species in the longline. The dominant species were Portunus trituberculatus and Raja pulchrain the gill net, Charybdis japonicaand and Octopus vulgarisin in the trap net, and Muraenesox cinereusin in the longline. The Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) per individual and per weight in the gill net were similar in May and July of 2015 and 2016. In October 2015, the CPUE per individual was 2.1 ind./h and the CPUE per weight was 505 g/h higher than the results in 2016, but there was no significant difference in the total CPUE between 2015 and 2016. In the trap net, the CPUE per weight was similar in both 2015 and 2016, but the CPUE per individual was 2.7 ind./h higher in October 2015 than in October 2016 and the total CPUE was not significantly different from 2015 to 2016. The CPUE per individual and weight in the longline were significantly higher in July and October 2015 than in the same months of 2016, but the total CPUE in 2015 and 2016 did not show a significant difference.

Encircling gill net fishery is a kind of gill net which is generally used in shallow coastal waters. After the fish have been encircled by the gill net, noise stimulus such as a stone or sound is used to force them to gill or entangle themselves in the netting surrounding them. Although the fishing by a stone is a traditional fishing method, it is considered as an illegal fishing method by physical stimulus such as explosives and mechanical vibrator. However, this illegal fishing method has raised some problems to the fishing boat of other fisheries or many anglers due to disturb aggregating fish schools. This study is aimed to provide scientific base data to verify whether to impact the ecosystem caused by this encircling gill net. This study exhibited that the impulse noise by concrete sphere in the encircling gill net was 159 dB/μPa, the ambient noise from ship engine was 160 dB/μPa, and the maximum noise from continuous artificial vibrator was 175 dB/μPa. These may be stimulus to the escape of fish distributed in a wide area in its natural state; it is not likely the cause of death due to catastrophic stress. Therefore, it needs to prepare the consideration of standard limit on fishing stimulus in fishing methods of the fishery laws and regulations, prevent fishermen form using illegal fishing gear (i.e. explosive sound standards: 200~220 dB/μPa) and provide them with countermeasures.

Spinyhead sculpin Dasycottus setiger, a species of cold water fish, is distributed along the eastern coastal waters of Korea. A series of fishing experiments was carried out in the waters near Uljin from June, 2002 to November, 2004, using the experimental monofilament gill nets of different mesh sizes (82.2, 89.4, 104.8, and 120.2 ㎜) to describe the selectivity of the gill net for the fish. The SELECT (Share Each Length’s Catch Total) analysis with maximum likelihood method was applied to fit the different functional models (normal, lognormal, and bi-normal models) for selection curves to the catch data. The bi-normal model with the fixed relative fishing intensity was selected as the best-fit selection curve by AIC (Akaike’s Information Criterion) comparison. For the best-fit selection curve, the optimum relative length (the ratio of fish total length to mesh size) with the maximum efficiency and the selection range (R50%,large - R50%, small) of 50% retention were obtained as 2.363 and 0.851, respectively. The ratios of body girth to mesh perimeter at 100% retention where the selection curve of each mesh size represented the optimum total length were calculated as the range of 0.86 ~ 0.87.

Yield per recruit model is the most popular method for fisheries stock assessment. However, stock assessment using yield per recruit model can lead to recruitment overfishing as this model only considers the maximum yield per recruit without spawning biomass for reproduction. For this reason, spawning biomass per recruit model which reveals variations of spawning stock biomass per fishing mortality (F) and age at first capture (tc) is considered as more proper method for stock assessment. There are mainly two methods for spawning biomass per recruit model known as age specific selectivity method and knife– edged selectivity method. In the knife–edged selectivity method, the spawning biomass per recruit has been often calculated using biomass per recruit value by multiplying the maturity ratio of the recruited age. But the maturity ratio in the previous method was not considered properly in previous studies. Therefore, a new method of the knife–edged selectivity model was suggested in this study using a weighted average of the maturity ratio for ages from the first capture to the lifespan. The optimum fishing mortality in terms of F35% which was obtained from the new method was compared to the old method for small yellow croaker stock in Korea. The value of F35% using the new knife–edged selectivity model was 0.302/year and the value using the old model was 0.349/year. However, the value of F35% using the age specific selectivity model was estimated as 0.320/year which was closer to the value from the new knife–edged selectivity model.

Pacific herring Clupea pallasii eggs were attached to the gill net in Korean coastal waters off Busan. To conservation and management the eggs attached to the gill net, we followed the natural hatching in coastal waters from five days after fertilization to the hatching finished, where the temperature was 9°C. The diameter of fertilized eggs was 1.24–1.55 mm (n= 50), and had a segmented pale yellow yolk, no oil globule. Natural hatching had started by 10 days after fertilization. Mass hatching occurred around 11–12 days after fertilization, most of eggs separated from the gill net. Therefore, when the Pacific herring eggs attached in gill net, should be natural hatching–induced in coastal waters during 12–14 days.