Abstract
The study on the Assembling Mechanism of the Hairtail, Trichiurus lenpturus, at the Fishing Grounds of the Cheju Strait had been investigated by analyzing the relationship of the oceanographic conditions and the fishing ground of the Hairtail in the Cheju Strait. 1. The fishing grounds of the hairtail at the Cheju Strait are formed at the bottom of a high temperature of the tidal front at the coast. area of northern Cheju Island, the tip of the linguiform is high in salinity at the eastern and western entrances of Cheju Island, low salinity eddy on the surface and its surrounding front, various water masses in the Strait and coastal waters of the South Sea in Korea. 2. The fishing grounds of the Hairtail at the Cheju Strait begins with the sea surface temperature higher than $15^{\circ}C$ and the incoming of low salinity water now from the East China Sea. 3. Estimation of optimum temperature and salinity per season based upon analysis for relationship between temperature of water and salinity of the bottom layer and the catch is : 15.2~$16.4^{\circ}C$, 34.20~34.40${\textperthousand}$ in spring(June); 14.4~ $17.0^{\circ}C$, 33.70~34.30${\textperthousand}$ in summer(July~September); and 15.7~ $18.6^{\circ}C$, 33.70~34.50$\textperthousand$ in autumn(October~December). Hairtail are mostly caught at the Yellow Sea Warm Current and Tsushima Current with temperature over $14.5^{\circ}C$ and salinity over 33.70${\textperthousand}$ at the bottom layers of the Cheju Strait. 4. Considering the relationship between the amount of hairtail catch and the water temperature of bottom layer, when the bottom water being above $14.0^{\circ}C$ flowed into Cheju Strait through the western entrance of the strait in summer, the ca-h appears to have been abundant. In contrast, the catch has been poor when the temperature of such water was recorded to be below $13^{\circ}C$ Therefore, distribution patterns of water at the bottom layer can be used as a forecast index whether the catch of a certain year will be good or poor.
