The abundance of juvenile yellowtail (Seriola quinqueradiata) near the Kuroshio: the roles of drifting seaweed and regional hydrography

We assess the effect of drifting seaweed (Sargassum sp.) biomass, geography and hydrography on juvenile yellowtail (Seriola quinqueradiata) abundance variation off the southeast coast of Japan, near the Kuroshio Current. The amount of drifting seaweed mats progressively increased northeastward into the cooler, coastal waters. Frontal structure indexed using a station‐to‐station ΔSST did not explain spatial variation in the seaweed mat distribution, although the western extent of the Kuroshio Current appeared to act as a boundary. Juvenile yellowtail constituted 51–62% of the fish collected in association with drifting seaweed mats in April 1996 and 1997 and 29% in June 1996. The abundance of juvenile yellowtail was positively correlated with seaweed biomass. The geographic distribution of juvenile yellowtail associated with drifting mats varied among sampling periods, being more southwesterly in April and more northeasterly in June. Simple multiple regression models based on seaweed biomass and geographic distribution (latitude) explained between 35% and 43% of the variation in juvenile yellowtail abundance in spring. Associations with spatial and temporal variations in hydrographic conditions did not contribute to explained variation in a meaningful manner. The results presented here indicate that, off the southeast coast of Japan during April, yellowtail juveniles are likely to be most abundant when seaweed biomass is high, occur offshore, and are bounded by the western extent of the Kuroshio Current near the 19–20°C SST isotherm.     

Recovery policy for chub mackerel stock using recruitment-per-spawning

The stock abundance of chub mackerel ( Scomber japonicus ) in the Pacific Ocean off Japan declined in the 1980s and remained at low levels through the 1990s. There were recruitment successes in 1992 and 1996. However, the cohorts born in these years were heavily fished before the age of maturity and chub mackerel has not begun to recover. To investigate the effects of conserving immature fish, we created four recovery policies: (i) policy 0, actual fishing mortality during the 1990s; (ii) policy 1, conserve strong year classes; (iii) policy 2, apply the average fishing mortality in the 1970s–1980s after 1992; and (iv) policy 3, a 55% reduction of the mortality adopted by policy 2. Policy 3 was considered to be the best in terms of final stock abundance and total catch from 1992 to 1999. We also calculate the future projection of stock and catch under these three policies as well as using average fishing mortality from 1993 to 1999. Using average fishing mortality from 1993 to 1999, the stock will not be recovered within the next 20 years. Even under the best policy, the risk that the final stock is not recovered to 3 million tons within the next 10 years is 40%.