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 choice behavior of the octopus in response to the environment-friendly colored sinker for octopus driftline and the sinker's fishing effect were studied under experimental conditions in the water tank and the field. The colors of the sinkers used for the experiment are white, black, yellow and green. Artificial baits are attached to the sinkers in order to attract the octopuses in the experiment. In the water tank experiment, two sinkers of two different colors are placed in a compartmentalized corner of the rectangular tank, and a CCD camera records the choice behaviors of the octopuses to the colored sinkers. In the field experiment, the catch investigation of octopus for each colored sinker was conducted 14 times in total by using 2(A, B) commercial fishing boats at the coast of Gangneung within 30m of depth in 2006. The number of colored sinkers per operation was a total of 24-40 pieces with the same number of sinkers individually for four colors. As a result, it was found that the octopus selected white the most followed by black and yellow in their choice of colored sinkers in the water tank experiment, and green was the lowest in their choice. Even in the field experiment, the sinkers of white and black showed a higher catch of octopus than the sinkers of yellow and green.

For environment-friendly fishery, the lead sinkers of octopus drift line were developed with the environmentfriendly sinker, and their characteristics and performance were investigated. To make the environmentfriendly sinker, the hydrate ceramic material was developed, and to increase the weight and strength, the iron power was added to it. The fishing hook was machine-made, and standardized, by using 60cm iron wire. For the manufacture of the sinker, the first, the mold was made, and then, hydrate ceramic material and water were quantitatively mixed. The mixture was poured into the mold prepared with a fishing hook already inserted, and had hardened for several hour, before it was taken out of the mold as a complete sinker. The sinkers were made in the 8 types ranging in weight from 150 to 500g, and their specific gravities were diverse from 2.871 to 6.637, which was 0.19 to 0.44 times lower than that of lead. The movement of the environment-friendly sinker by flume tank was possible in the weaker current speed than the similar lead sinker. In the coastal fishing grounds of Gangwon province, the comparison of catching efficiency was made between the improved fishing gears composed of the environment-friendly sinkers and artificial baits, and the current used fishing gears of lead sinkers and pig-fat baits. The result showed the tendency in which the improved fishing gears caught the bigger octopuses than the current used fishing gears. In the quantity and number of the fish catch per unit fishing gear, the improved fishing gear showed a little more catch than the current used fishing gear, regardless of the fishing area. However, the number of the improved fishing gears lost during fishing operation was similar to that of the current used fishing gears.

The crayfish-shaped artificial bait for octopus drift line is manufactured, into which is made to insert ordinary bait. The effects of the artificial bait are confirmed through the analysis of octopus' behavior in the laboratory in comparison with the existing bait of pig-fat skin, and the investigation of the octopus catch on the sea, and in addition, the examination of the water quality in relation to the bait to be inserted into the artificial bait is done together. The artificial bait is red in color, 10.5cm in the length of the body, and 29g in weight. The octopus behavior in relation to the bait in the laboratory has shown a good result in which more than 30% of the octopuses rushed to the artificial bait. In the analysis of the octopus sitting time by the bait, the octopus stayed longer with the artificial bait(63.7%) than the pig-fat skin(25.1%). The octopus sitting time at the artificial bait inserted with frozen squid(48.8％, 44.6％) is shown to be longer than that of the pig-fat skin(36.9％) or boiled fish paste(21.2％). In the analysis of sitting frequency to the bait, the case of the artificial bait(total 17 times) was more than that of the pig-fat skin(total 3 times), and the case of the artificial bait with frozen squid attracted the octopuses more frequently than that of the pig-fat skin or the boiled fish paste. In the field experiment, the fishing boat A(Manseon-ho, 1.22tons) caught the total 93 octopuses, while the fishing boat B(Ilho-ho, 0.73tons) caught the total 154 octopuses, all of which weighed less than 9.0kg. In the comparison with the total catch, the case with the artificial bait was a little higher than that of the pig-fat skin(**p < 0.05). In the analysis of the water quality in relation to the baits, the COD showed the descending order of frozen squid(0.57mg/g), boiled fish paste(0.18mg/g), and pig-fat skin(0.10mg/g), and the case with frozen squid was the highest and the case of the pig-fat skin, lowest. The total phosphorus, like the COD, showed the highest in frozen squid(0.02mg/g), and in case of the total nitrogen, unlike the COD, the pig-fat skin was shown to be the highest(0.006mg/g).

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.