• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.129-139
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• 2002

Fish distribution characteristics are essential to assess and estimate fisheries resources in a particular area. The primary goal of this study is to determine the distribution characteristics by the bottom trawling in the Yellow Sea west of South Korea. The surveys were carried out between 33$^{\circ}$00'N~37$^{\circ}$00'N latitude and 124$^{\circ}$00'E~126$^{\circ}$00'E longitude at EEZ(Exclusive Economic Zone) of Korea in Yellow Sea on May and August, 1999 and April, 2000. The ships used in this survey were the R/V Chung-kyeong(G/T 300) and R/V Dong-baek(G/T 1,050) of Yeosu National University. The results obtained can be summarized as follows 1. From the trawl data the fisheries resources are seriously decreasing through most of the species(about more 50%) have been appeared only one time at the bottom trawl on April, 2000. The total fish species caught by the trawl net during the 3 times survey were 106 species and a few species(dominant species) of these occupied 50~90% of the quantity of the total quantity by number or by weight. Among the dominant species the tanaka's snailfish was recorded to be the most dominant species in the survey area. The fish species in the Yellow Sea were clustered according to the regions. They clustered in two or three partes to the south-north direction in the spring season and clustered in two parts to the on-off shore direction of the shore in the summer season. Most of the fish caught at the the trawl net with cover-net(30.3mm) were small sized. They were shorter than 15 cm in length and the extruding rate of the cod-end which was 60mm mesh size ranges about 90%. 2. The densities of the number and weight per unit volume derived from the total catches sampled in April, 2000 survey were $1532.2{\times}10^{-6}fish/m^3$ and $39.55{\times}10^{-6}kg/m^3$, respectively. 3. The density variation of fish population between 1999 and 2000 showed a slight tendency to increase.