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Empirical biomass model for the Japanese sardine, Sardinops melanostictus , with sea surface temperature in the Kuroshio Extension
Author(s) -
Noto Masayuki,
Yasuda Ichiro
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
fisheries oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1365-2419
pISSN - 1054-6006
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2419.2003.00210.x
Subject(s) - sardine , biomass (ecology) , sea surface temperature , oceanography , environmental science , period (music) , fishery , climatology , biology , geology , fish <actinopterygii> , physics , acoustics
An Empirical Biomass Model for the Japanese sardine, Sardinops melanostictus , was developed on the basis of the relationship between February sea surface temperature (SST) in the Kuroshio Extension (30–35°N, 145–180°E) and the mortality coefficient during the period from egg to age 1, observed in 1979–94, to examine the long‐term variation of biomass. The periods of the good and bad catch, the year of the biomass peak, and the speed of the biomass decline in the period from 1957 to 1994 were successfully reproduced, except for the biomass increase in the early 1970s. When the model also included with a density‐dependent effect, the whole history of the observed catch during 1957–94 was almost perfectly reproduced. These results suggest that the environment in the Kuroshio Extension region, represented by winter–spring SST, is regarded as a leading factor for determining fluctuations of the sardine biomass in the long term, and that the density effect has a secondary contribution.