Population Structure of Surface Swarms of the Euphausiid Euphausia pacifica Caught by Drum Screens of Uljin Nuclear Power Plant in the East Coast of Korea

In February and April 1997, three temporary interruptions of electric power production at the Uljin Nuclear Power Plant in the east coast of Korea were caused by the malfunction of the cool-ing-water supply unit. The clogging of the drum screens inside the unit caused by the surface swarm of the euphausiid Euphausia pacifica Hansen might be responsible for the malfunction. These incidents were of particular interest since such interruption of reactors' operation by krill swarms had not previously been reported. Using samples caught by the drum screens inside the cooling water-supply unit, we investigated the population structure of surface swarms. One occasion of nighttime and three occasions of daytime surface swarms were found in February and April 1997, respectively. The foreguts of more than 60% of E. pacifica in nighttime surface swarm were in full condition. This evidence suggests that E. pacifica aggregates to the surface water at night for feeding. In daytime surface swarms consisting of mature E. pacifica, however, foreguts in full condition were only found in less than 10eio of krill examined, suggesting that daytime surface swarms are closely related to breeding activity. During the study period, the growth rate of mature females was more than twice higher than that of mature males. Analyses of the sex-ratio and length-frequency data show a decrease in the portion of males with increasing size. There was a decline in the number of males of 19 mm in length. Energy loss during spermatophore transfer may result in the death of male E. pacifica, as found in male E. superba.