Maturity and spawning of the pointhead flounder, Hippoglossoides pinetorum were investigated on the basis of samples collected in the coastal waters off Gangwon-do, East Sea from January 2012 to December 2013. The average total length of H. pinetorum was 25.0 cm and 21.9 cm for females and males, respectively. The spawning period was from May to July according to monthly changes gonadosomatic index (GSI) and maturity stages. The spawning period in Gangwon-do was delayed relatively to that in Gyeongbuk-do. The mature egg diameter ranged between 300-700 ㎛. The relationship between TL and fecundity (F) was F = 63.574 TL - 1471.3 (R2=0.7603), that is, the larger total length, the more fecundity H. pinetorum had. We estimated that the TLs at 50% group maturity were 25.6 cm for females and 19.9 cm for males. The spawning ecology by sea area should be considered efficient resource management for H. pinetorum. Furthermore, it is necessary to study more on the relationships among growth, maturity and water temperature variations in the East Sea.

The age and growth of pointhead flounder, Hippoglossoides pinetorum caught by gill nets was analyzed in this study from March 2015 to July 2017. New annuli were formed in H. pinetorum otoliths annually, and the boundary was set between the opaque and translucent zones from March and April. The relationships between total length (TL) and body weight (BW) were BW = 0.0025 TL3.409 (r2 = 0.9551) for females and BW = 0.0057 TL3.138 (r2 = 0.9163) for males. In this study, the ring of pointhead flounder, H. pinetorum was formed between 3 and 8 for females and between 3 and 6 for males. Total length (TL) and otolith radius (OR) were measured as follows: TL = 7.142 OR + 0.769 (r2 = 0.793) for females and TL = 6.498 OR + 1.706 (r2 = 0.652) for males. The mean distances of first ring (r1) were 0.92 mm and 0.91 mm for females and males respectively. The TLs at the time of annulus formation, back-calculated from the otolith-length relationship by reference to the von Bertalanffy growth curves, were Lt = 43.59 (1-e-0.15(t+0.007)) for females and Lt = 28.13 (1-e-0.26(t+0.006)) for males while the growth between female and male was different.