This study investigated the species composition and community structure of aquatic organisms captured using coastal beam trawling in Gomso Bay, Jeollabuk-do, from January to December 2022. Throughout the experimental period, a total of 20,246 individuals belonging to 94 marine species were captured, with a combined biomass of 602,828 g. Fish exhibited the highest abundance, comprising 56 species, followed by crustacea (21 species), bivalvia (8 species), cephalopoda (5 species), gastropoda (3 species), and holothuroidea (1 species). The dominant species was Leiognathus nuchalis, constituting 14.0% of the total individuals, followed by Portunus trituberculatus at 12.1%, Oratosquilla oratoria at 10.4%, Crangon hakodatei at 9.9%, and Metapenaeus joyneri at 7.9%. The diversity index ranged from 1.72 to 2.55, with the lowest diversity observed in March and the highest in July. Cluster analysis based on species composition of the 27 most common species showed that aquatic organisms were divided into three groups: spring and summer organisms (Group A) and summer organisms (Group B) and autumn and winter organisms (Group C).

In the actual sea, the additional resistance due to external force such as wind, current and wave is accompanied, and the required power is added in response to these resistance. Especially when the ship is sailing at low speed, the effects of wind and current have a great impact on the safe control of the ship. Likewise, it is thought that the effects of wind and current have a great impact on the trawl ship control since the towing speed of a bottom trawl ship is a low speed of 3 to 4 knots. If the reduce of ship speed and the increase of engine power due to the influence of wind and current can be identified, the safe towing power can be calculated based on a given engine output. Thus, the appropriate size of a fishing gear can be determined. In this study, a total of 20 trawl operations were conducted for seasonal maritime research in the same research area according to the operation mode of propeller. Based on navigation data, trawl fishing data, and engine performance data acquired during the towing fishing gear, and data of ship speed, hull resistance, fishing gear resistance, wind force and current force according to an incidence angle were estimated. The overall power for these loads was calculated and compared with the measured engine power, and the effects of wind force and current force on the engine power were investigated.

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.

This study was investigated in order to find composition and density of fisheries resource using bottom trawl in April, July, August, and November 2022 in the East China Sea. The average density of fisheries resource was estimated using the swept area method. As a result, 35 species were collected from the East China Sea. These included 21 fishes, six crustaceans, six cephalopods and two echinoderms. Seasonally, the average density of crustacean individuals per unit area were highest in November (692.1 inds./km 2 ), while cephalopod individuals per unit area were highest in August (39.4 inds./km 2 ). The average density of fish individuals per unit area were highest in August at 355.0 (inds./km 2 ).

This study quantitatively evaluated size selectivity for three netting shapes (T0; regular, T45, T90) and hanging ratio (35%, 70%) of T0 netting used for trawl codend. The size selectivity experiment was performed in a tank using a cube experimental model with a length of 50 cm on one side and 389 experimental individuals, jack mackerel (Trachurus japonicus). In the selectivity analysis, a selectivity curve was created based on the selection ratio using a logistic function, and the 25%, 50%, and 70% selection length and selection range  were obtained. The T0 netting was 19.54 cm when the 50% selective length, which is a selectivity evaluation index, had a hanging ratio of 35%, a selection range of 0.51 cm, and 22.70 cm and 3.08 cm for the hanging ratio of 70%. The T45 netting was 24.34 cm and 2.13 cm, and the T90 netting was 23.51 cm and 2.84 cm. The results of the T45 netting and the T90 netting are similar, and the 50% selection length and selection range were relatively larger than the T0 netting. There was a significant difference in the correlation between the circumference of the inner circle of the mesh by the shape of the netting and the body girth of the experimental individual (Pearson test,      ). There was no significant difference in the correlation between the selection ratio by the T0 netting, T45 netting, and T90 netting with a 70% hanging ratio (one-way ANOVA,   ). The results of this study showed that selectivity such as T45 netting and T90 netting appeared when the hanging ratio, which maximizes the area of T0 netting, was maintained at 70%.

In this study, a comparative test operation was conducted through the alternate haul method to examine the selectivity of the four mesh sizes (60 mm, 90 mm, 110 mm, and 130 mm) of the trawl codend. The selectivity was analyzed using the SELECT model considering the fishing efficiency (split parameter) of each fishing gear in the comparative test fishing operation in the trawl and the maximum likelihood method for parameter estimation. A selectivity master curve was estimated for several mesh sizes using the extended-SELECT model. As a result of analyzing the selectivity for silver croaker based on the results of three times hauls for each experimental gear, it was found that the size of the fish caught increased as the size of the mesh size increased. When the selectivity for each mesh size analyzed by the SELECT model considering the split ratio was evaluated based on the size of the AIC value, the estimated split model was superior to the equal split model. Based on the master curve, the 50% selection length value was 2.893, which was estimated to be 136 mm based on the mesh size of 60 mm. In some selectivity models, there was a large deviance between observed and theoretical values due to the non-uniformity of the distribution of fished length classes. As a result, it is considered that appropriate sea trials and selectivity evaluation methods with high reliability should be applied to present trawl fishery resource management methods.

In September and October 2020, combined acoustic and trawl surveys were conducted in the northwestern sea of Jeju Island. In the survey area, a region, so called Jeju region, was designated to esimate the biomass of chub mackerel and jack mackerel using a trawl survey method and frequency difference method. In the September survey, the weight ratios of jack mackerel and chub mackerel to the total catch were 24.6% and 2.8%, respectively, and in the October survey, those ratios were 24.9% and 20.7%, which were used to calculate their biomass (trawl survey). Using the frequency difference range (–8 to –3dB) corresponding to two species in 120 and 200 kHz, their biomass was estimated (frequency difference method). As a result, the biomass of two species from the trawl method was 3252.3 tons in September and 5777.0 tons in October. The estimated biomass by the frequency difference method was 4926.6 tons in September and 7521.5 tons in October. It was the first trial to estimate the biomass of two species using the trawl and frequency differencing methods in South Korea although there were some differences between two methods. In addition, horizontal distributions of acoustic backscattering strength over the entire survey area were mapped.

Trawl fishing is a fishing method in which a large, motorized trawler tows a bag-shaped net to catch fish living at the bottom or middle layers. For a trawl gear, it is of utmost importance to select the gear size and towing speed suitable for the effective horsepower (EHP) of the trawler in the design stage. In general, the power required to move an object is proportional to the product of the object speed and resistance; therefore, there are various choices for the gear resistance and towing speed given the effective horsepower of the trawler. However, there have been few studies on the gear design of an appropriate scale for the towing speed given the effective horsepower of the trawler. In this study, the resistance and shape of three types of midwater trawl gears were analyzed using SimuTrawl, a computer simulation tool. In addition, the relationship between the propulsion force and speed of the ship was clarified when the size and effective horsepower of the trawler were determined. Finally, we suggested the relationship between the towing speed and the resistance of the gear when the trawler towed the net was investigated, and a specific method of selecting the gear size according to the towing speed.

Thousands of pelagic and demersal fishes inhabit the waters around Korea and many of them are overexploited. One of the reasons is technological development, which increases the efficiency of the vessels continuously. The analysis was conducted to identify the change of fishing power index to develop the vessel and gear technology that may have improved the fishing efficiency of the otter trawl fishery from 1960s to 2010s. Gross tonnage was decreased stably, but horse power was increased annually. The perimeter of net mouth was somewhat longer, but little changed. Color fish finder was utilized from the mid-1960s. Hydraulic net drum were introduced in the early 1990s, and supply rate was gradually increased. Surveys on the supply and upgrading of fishing equipment utilized visiting research. Therefore, the relative fishing power index in the trawl fishery increased about two to three times in the 2010s compared to the 1980s. The results are expected to contribute to reasonable fisheries stock management.

Monthly fluctuation in abundance and species composition of fish in coastal waters off Oenaro island, Goheung were investigated using seasonal samples collected by a shrimp beam trawl in 2018. A total of 5,981 fishes were sampled and classified into 48 species, 32 families, and 9 orders. The dominant species was Engraulis japonicus (993 individuals, 16.60%), Amblychaeturichthys hexanema (844 individuals, 14.11%), and Thryssa kammalensis (674 individuals, 11.27%). The highest number of individuals was found in August (958 individuals), while the lowest number of individuals was found in January (136 individuals). The diversity index was the highest in November (H’ = 2.37) and the lowest in January (H’ = 1.77).

Discarding juvenile fishes under girth 16 cm nearly equal to inner perimeter of codend mesh size collected by a cover net method in bottom trawl. The body size of the main five species (mackerel, horse mackerel, sea bream, melon seed and black throat seaperch) was measured for their body length, girth, weight, height and width and analyzed size selectivity. Frequency of penetrating fish as retention in a cover net was less than 40% of total number of juvenile discarding fish. The most of body length or girth of five species were significantly different between in the codend and in the cover net. The 50% selection girth in the cover net ranged 8-11 cm were smaller than those in the codend ranged 9-13 cm by the species respectively. The 50% selection body length was significantly related with the ratio of body height (H) by body width (W) both for in the codend or in the cover net while 50% selection girth was not significantly related with H/W. Furthermore 50% selection fish size by fish species between in the codend and in the cover net was not significantly different both in body length or girth. Therefore, the girth selectivity represented possibly as one unique value regarding fish body shape was considered as more useful method for multi-species catch in trawl.

It was turned out by shrimp beam trawl monthly survey from March, 2015 to February, 2016 that different species composition and abundance of the fish assemblages in Sacheon Bay and coastal waters off Namhae, Korea were compared. As a result of monthly measured sea temperature and salinity of Sacheon Bay and coastal waters off Namhae, sea temperature of both areas was changed seasonally; however, differences in sea temperature occurred during certain periods depending on the region. Salinity was generally low in Sacheon Bay affected by fresh water, and both areas was low in summer and high in winter. A total of 73 species representing 37 families were collected in Sacheon Bay. The dominant fish species in terms of numbers and biomass were Liparis tanakae, 23,077 inds./km2, 332.1 kg/km2. A total of 91 fish species representing 49 families were collected in coastal waters off Namhae. The dominant fish species in terms of numbers were Leiognathus nuchalis, 139,683 inds./km2 and biomass were Chelidonichthys spinosus, 1,078.6 kg/km2. Analysis of dendrogram of the clustering showed that Sacheon Bay and coastal waters off Namhae were distinctive featured (global R = 0.691, p = 0.017). And except of summer season (July-October), there was a distinctive feature seasonally (global R = 0.844, p = 0.001). The fish species that appeared in common in both areas, where fish species caught in Sacheon Bay, an important inner bay,were smaller than those caught in coastal waters off Namhae appeared. It presented that Sacheon Bay plays a more important role in spawning and nursery ground for fisheries resource than coastal waters off Namhae, Korea.