On the relationship between the Oyashio front and saury fishing grounds in the north-western Pacific: a forecasting method for fishing ground locations |
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| Authors: | ICHIRO YASUDA YOSHIRO WATANABE |
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| Institution: | Tohoku National Fisheries Research Institute, 3–27-5, Shinhama-cho, Shiogama-shi, Miyagi 985, Japan |
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| Abstract: | The relationships between fishing ground locations of Pacific saury (Cololabis saira) and the two Oyashio fronts, the offshore front between 146oE and 155oE and the coastal Oyashio intrusion, before the saury fishing season, were examined using data from 1971 to 1991. Interannual geographical shifts of both the offshore Oyashio front and saury fishing grounds had a dominant interdecadal fluctuation. In years when the offshore front shifted north (south), the fishing grounds were formed relatively nearshore (offshore). When the offshore front shifted north, the fishing grounds were formed further nearshore in years the coastal Oyashio intrusion extended south. When the offshore front shifted south, on the other hand, the southward extension of the coastal intrusion did not necessarily cause formation of coastal fishing grounds. These results showed that locations of the fishing grounds depend not only on local and instantaneous oceanographic environments around the fishing grounds, but also on oceanographic conditions over an extensive range of the Oyashio area. This might indicate that the ecology of the saury's northward migration, through mixed water regions between the Kuroshio and Oyashio fronts in spring and summer, has a close relation to the shift of the offshore Oyashio front over a time range of months. A practical forecasting method for locations of saury fishing grounds is proposed based on the oceanography before the fishing season. |
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| Keywords: | saury Oyashio front north-western Pacific fishing grounds |
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