FISHERIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE,MOA,TAIWAN

Most studies on the cephalopods of Taiwan have focused on population biology, while studies regarding distribution patterns and oceanographic influences have been limited. This study applied redundancy analysis and a generalized linear model to investigate the relationship between the oceanographic factors and spatial distributions of cephalopod species captured using bottom trawling by the Fishery Researcher 1 in October 2012 off northern Taiwan. The results showed that the cephalopod species distributions were associated with distinct oceanographic conditions. Three species, Uroteuthis duvauceli, Sepia recurvirostra, and Sepia lycidas, were distributed in the low-density bottom waters around the Taiwan Strait, while U. edulis was distributed in the high-density bottom waters around the southern East China Sea. This study suggested that the density and salinity of bottom water might be the key factors affecting the distribution of cephalopod species. A contour map of the hydrological parameters showed that the northern Taiwan waters were influenced by the waters from the Taiwan Strait and the southern East China Sea. Therefore, the distributions of cephalopod species could be located by determining the point where water masses meet. Such data could be used to locate potential fishing grounds and be applied to stock assessment.