Purse seine fishing is a fishing method that involves surrounding a school of fish with a net and then closing the net at the bottom to prevent the fish from escaping. The success rate of purse seine operations is universally determined by the trajectory of the net shooting whether in large-scale, offshore, or coastal purse seine operations. The decision on where to shoot the nets and the movement of the surrounding vessels depends on the captain's or fishing master's judgment that is based on experience. Real purse seine operations must consider wind direction, currents, wave height, and the distribution of prey and other marine life making it challenging to cast a perfect circle or oval-shaped net, often relying on various shooting trajectories based on experience. Current purse seine operations involve both the main vessel and auxiliary boats, and the shooting trajectory is determined by various environmental factors like wind direction and sea conditions making it challenging to achieve a perfect cast. This comprehensive overview of the purse seine fishing industry and its practices in South Korea provides insights into the operational techniques and challenges faced by fishermen as well as the significant role of research in enhancing fishing operations and sustainability.

In the previous study, a shooting trajectory assuming that the purse seine shooting trajectory is a circle was proposed based on the speed and direction of the movement of the fish school. However, in practice, a trajectory that is closer to an elliptical shape than a circular one is often formed. In this study, the existing circular trajectory and the elliptical trajectory methods were compared under the same conditions to confirm the effectiveness of elliptical shooting trajectory. In addition, changes in the eccentricity of ellipses were derived to assess which type of ellipse was appropriate as a shooting trajectory. When a high-speed fish school moves in a straight line, an elliptical shooting trajectory with the eccentricity of 0.7 to 0.9 will be reasonable, and for middle-low speed fish school, an elliptical shooting trajectory with the eccentricity of 0.4 to 0.6 will be more useful than a circle shooting trajectory.