Selectivity of Gillnet for Neon Flying Squid, Ommastrephes bartrami (LeSueur) in the North Pacific

This paper attempted to estimate mesh selectivity of gill nets for neon flying squid in the north Pacific Ocean. The 11 linear regressions, (P<0.05) were obtained using the data on catch ratios derived from mesh size combinations between two slightly different mesh sizes of 12 kinds of research gillnet (namely 33, 37, 42, 48, 55, 63, 72. 76, 86, 96, 105 and 115 mm in stretched mesh size). There was an increase in the optimum length with the increase in mesh size but standard deviation showed somewhat increase with the increase in the mesh size. The selectivity curves were well fitted to the length frequency distributions obtained from samples for the mesh sizes from 48 mm through 86 mm. For the mesh sizes of 33, 37 and 42 mm the DML (Dorsal Mantle Length) compositions were distributed towards the right hand-limb of the curves. The DML distributions from the 96 mm and larger meshes showed a trend towards the left hand-limb of the curves. The selectivity curves for different mesh sizes indicate that large mesh sizes catch a greater size range of squid, and the gill net fishery in the north Pacific Ocean captures effectively neon flying squid within the range of $9\~43cm$ DML.