Relationships between environmental variables and spatial and temporal distribution of jack mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) in the Beibu Gulf, South China Sea

The jack mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) is both a dominant pelagic fish species and an important fishing target in the Beibu Gulf, South China Sea. However, the resource status of this species fluctuates dramatically, and it has recently been added to a “red list” of threatened species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Despite its economic importance and decreasing population status, limited research on its spatiotemporal distribution has been undertaken over the last decades. In order to evaluate the most crucial factors that influence the spatiotemporal variability of T. japonicus and to determine GAM performance and predictability, we analyze catch per unit effort (CPUE) of T. japonicus from Beibu Gulf over four seasons (months) from 2013 to 2014. A generalized additive model (GAMs) is populated with water depth and remotely sensed sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), sea surface chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a) and sea level anomaly (SLA). The CPUE of T. japonicus varies seasonally, with higher CPUE in summer and autumn than in spring and winter, and the highest CPUE in summer. GAM results explain 57% of the deviation explained in CPUE, with the most important variables being SLA, Month, Depth, SSS, and SST , each explaining 21.2%, 18.7%, 10.7%, 5.1%, and 1.3% of the variation in CPUE, respectively. This species occurs mainly between 50 and 75 m depth, SSS values 32.3–33.5 PSU and SST 25–30.5 °C. High CPUE sites occur near SLA ≤ 0 m, on the edge of cold eddies, and there is a certain catch near the sea surface with SLA ≥ 0 m. The spatial and temporal distribution of T. japonicus is affected by the season and the marine hydrological environment. This study might contribute to a better understanding of the distributional patterns of T. japonicus as well as provide a basis for sustainable management in the Beibu Gulf.

In Situ Measurement of Sound Attenuation by Fish Schools (Japanese Horse Mackerel, Trachurus japonicus) at Mid-Frequency Bands

Acoustic waves are attenuated by fish schools as they propagate through the ocean. The attenuation by fish schools is not currently considered in fishery acoustics and sonar applications, especially at mid-frequency bands. In this study, fish school attenuation experiments were conducted with a number of individual fish in situ in a net cage at mid-frequency bands (3–7 kHz). The target fish species was the Japanese horse mackerel (Trachurus japonicus), which typically forms fish schools in the coastal ocean of northeastern Asia. The attenuated acoustic waves were measured for the cases of non-net, only net (0), 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 individual horse mackerels in the net cage. Results showed that the acoustic signal attenuation increased with the number of horse mackerels. The mean and maximum attenuation coefficients were approximately 6.0–15.4 dB/m and 6.5–21.8 dB/m for all frequencies, respectively. The measured attenuation coefficients were compared with the ones from previous studies to propose new regression models with normalized extinction cross-sections of weight and length of fish. This study confirmed that the fish school attenuation could not be ignored and compensated at mid-frequencies in the ocean. These results would be useful for fishery acoustics, especially in the development of scientific echo-sounder, and naval applications of sonar operations and analysis.