• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.989-999
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• 2021

The sound of finless porpoises Neophocaena asiaeorientalis was recorded with an acoustic recorder to confirm their emergence in the South Sea of South Korea in February, June, and November 2020. Sea water temperature and salinity were also measured. In addition, a sighting survey was conducted to observe the behavior of the finless porpoises and the marine environment, and the clicks of the finless porpoises were recorded every day. The results showed that they always emerged in the survey area. The finless porpoises mainly foraged, whereas some played or rested. The water temperature range of areas where the finless porpoises emerged was 7.5-23.5℃. Assuming that the number of clicks corresponds to the number of finless porpoises, the finless porpoises emerged the most during spring. The emergence decreased during winter and was the lowest during autumn. The finless porpoises emerged more during the daytime than during the nighttime in all seasons, indicating a temporal difference in the usage of the survey area. This might be due to the movement of prey organisms according to regional characteristics. A long-term survey and research on habitat use and environment is needed to manage and conserve the finless porpoises.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.704-713
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• 2018

Globally, the survival of many marine mammals is threatened by entanglement in fishing gear and there is also a high bycatch in Korea. This study analyzed the bycatch data of most cetacean species for Korean waters from 2011 to 2017, including the narrow-ridged finless porpoise Neophocaena asiaeorientalis, common dolphin Delphinus delphis, common minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata, and Pacific white-sided dolphin Lagenorhynchus obliquidens. A total of 12,262 cetaceans were captured as bycatch. In the Yellow and South Seas, the main species affected was the narrow-ridged finless porpoise, with 82.9% caught in stow nets and 11.5% captured in trawls. In the East Sea, the common minke whale, common dolphin, and Pacific white-sided dolphin were reported. The main common minke whale bycatch (43.5%) was in set nets, while common dolphins (49.0%) and Pacific white-sided dolphins (91.4%) were mainly caught in gill nets. The narrow-ridged finless porpoise, common dolphin, and common minke whale were most commonly reported in March, April, and May, while the Pacific white-sided dolphin was most frequently captured as bycatch in January and December. Each of these factors (season and gear responsible for bycatch) depended on the characteristics of the cetacean species. To conserve cetaceans, it is necessary to reduce the bycatch.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.537-545
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• 2021

Due to the accelerated development and transformation of coastal waters by humans, damage to marine mammals is a concern. To understand how coastal development may affect marine mammals, it is essential to determine their distribution characteristics. In this study, the appearance of finless porpoises was confirmed by passive acoustic monitoring around the Southwest offshore wind farm in July, 2020. Although there were no visual observation results of finless porpoises in the research area, the clicks measured in the offshore wind farm were verified by comparing with acoustic characteristics of the clicks measured in the area with a high detection rate. During the experimental period, clicks of finless porpoises were recorded for ten consecutive days, and Clicks per Porpoise Positive Minute (CPPM) was 40.7 clicks min-1, Porpoise Positive Minutes (PPM) was 9.7 %, Encounter duration and waiting time were 18.2 min and 94.9 min respectively. This study provides information on the appearance of them in the Southwest offshore wind farm and this result may help to monitor the impact of marine mammals from wind farm operation.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.892-900
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• 2013

In 2011, the system for conserving and managing cetacean resources in Korea changed. The status of the cetacean bycatch was analyzed using a distribution certificate that was issued by the coast guard. During 2011.2012, 12 species were bycatch in Korean waters: three species of baleen whale and nine species of dolphin. The finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) was the dominant species, followed by the common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), and Pacific white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens). Among the baleen whales, the common minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) was first and Bryde's (Balaenoptera edeni) and humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) whales appeared in the Korea Strait and East Sea, respectively. Among the dolphins, the finless porpoise ranked first in the Yellow Sea. The common dolphin, Pacific white-sided dolphin, and harbor porpoise were more frequent in the East Sea than in other waters. The cetacean bycatch was caused mainly by pots, set nets, gill nets, and stow nets. Among the three species of baleen whale, the common minke whale was caught by pots and set nets, and comprised over 68.9% of the total bycatch in 2011 and 56.2% in 2012. Comparing the bycatch caused by fishing gears by area in 2011 and 2012, 97.9% and 99.6%, respectively, of the finless porpoise bycatch in the Yellow Sea was by stow nets. In the Korea Strait, trawl bycatch comprised 67.3% in 2011 and 73.0% in 2012, followed by gill nets, set nets, and pots targeting finless porpoise and common minke whales. In the East Sea, gill nets were responsible for 46.7% in 2011 and 61.2% in 2012, followed by set nets and pots.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.723-729
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• 2012

On 3 February 2011, a mass mortality of finless porpoises Neophocaena asiaeorientalis occurred at a dike of the Saemangeum Sea dike. A total of 249 carcasses were collected; these had been stranded by a sea dike and had floated into the lake formed by the dike. Eight bodies were measured, and four of these were dissected to analyze stomach contents. The blubber thicknesses of five bodies were compared with those of caught finless porpoises in the Yellow Sea from 2010. Finless porpoises at the Saemangeum Sea dike exhibited better nutritive conditions than finless porpoises in the Yellow Sea. Air temperature in January 2011 was lower than the prior 5-year average (P<0.05). Water temperature when the mass mortality occurred was lower than values observed in 2009 and 2010: values below $0^{\circ}C$ had been recorded, and the majority of the dike lake had frozen over. The mass mortality of finless porpoises may have been caused by these unusually low temperatures.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.978-982
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• 2014

A mass mortality of 249 finless porpoises Neophocaena asiaeorientalis occurred in the Saemangeum Dyke in February 2011. It was an extraordinary event, notable due to the death toll and the location of the occurrence, a semi-isolated lake enclosed by a man-made structure. We conducted sighting surveys that consisted of a land-based sighting survey recorded from three different platforms, and a ship-based sighting survey in the lake. The land-based survey was dedicated to clarifying the distribution of finless porpoises and whether they passed through two water gates (Shinsi and Garyek) of the dyke from 2011 to 2013. No finless porpoises were observed in the 2011 or January 2012 surveys. In April 2012, two months and one year after the mass mortality, one finless porpoise, swimming 400 m from the Shinsi water gate, was observed by a land-based survey. The number of observed individuals increased to nine in 2012 and reached 10 by May 2013 at the time of the surveys. Most of the porpoises were detected near the Garyek water gate. The density of the animals was $0.075/km^2$ in 2012 and $0.083/km^2$ in 2013. The density of porpoises was $2.063/km^2$ at the time of the mass mortality.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.271-282
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• 2021

This study aims to understand the opening efficiency of the finless porpoise escape guide net by the type of extension net that is the part to which the escape guide net is attached in stow net. To this end, extension nets were manufactured in full size and the net mouth area and towing tension were investigated according to the towing speed (0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 m/s) and the type of extension net (25 mm net and raschel net) in the water tank. As a result, the net mouth area of the guide net was larger when the raschel net was used for the extension net than when the 25 mm net was used under all towing speeds. In addition, regardless of the type of extension net, the net mouth area reached about 80% of the maximum value at a towing speed of 0.4 m/s. In the field, fishing operation of stow net is performed only when the current speed is above 0.4 m/s. Therefore, the speed of 0.4 m/s was confirmed as a meaningful value to determine whether it is possible to operate. As a result of analyzing the relationship between the net mouth area of the guide net and the towing tension, it was confirmed that the difference in the net mouth area of the guide net according to the type of the extension net was due to the difference in the solidity ratio.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.889-898
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• 2023

This study was conducted to estimate the abundance of narrow-ridged finless porpoises Neophocaena asiaeorientalis in the West Coast of Korea, where they predominantly inhabit. Sighting surveys were conducted in March and November 2021-2022 using vessels and aircraft during the same time periods and along the same survey transects. The aerial surveys yielded significantly more sightings than shipboard surveys, with 8.5-21.6 times the abundance and 6.3-16.9 times the number of observations. The detection rates were 0.000-0.047 and 0.0103 to 0.539 per km² for shipboard and aerial surveys, respectively. The densities were estimated to be 0.003-0.061 and 0.236-1.898 individuals per km² in the shipboard and aerial surveys, respectively. The shipboard survey conducted in March 2022 and the aerial survey conducted in November 2021 had the highest detection rates and abundance. In the coastal waters, shipboard sighting surveys face numerous challenges due to factors such as fishing gear, islands, and shallow water depths. In contrast, aerial surveys have the advantage of a shorter survey period and are less affected by weather, fisheries, coastal lines, and other variables. Thus, they are highly suitable for studying narrow-ridged finless porpoises in the coastal areas of the West Sea.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.966-969
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• 2013

Vessel-based sighting surveys for cetaceans have been conducted in Korean waters since 2000. The supporting data estimate the abundance of finless porpoises along the west coast of Korea; however, they are insufficient because of the coverage and frequency of the surveys. A preliminary aerial survey was conducted in 2011, and the results were assessed with respect to a sighting survey operated by a research vessel in order to compare effectiveness and potentiality. A total of 110.00 nautical miles of effective efforts were made with three sightings under Beaufort scale 4 in the aerial survey, while the vessel-operated survey covered 403.38 nautical miles over 7 days without any sightings under Beaufort scale 4. The standard deviation of the altitude in this survey was 22.7 m, which was significantly higher than that of the referenced study of 4.3 m.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.486-492
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• 2012

In the late 1970s, the National Fisheries Research & Development Institute (NFRDI) started cetacean research to submit the Korean whale catch record to the International Whaling Commission. This continued until the moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. The NFRDI resumed cetacean research with a pilot whale sighting survey in 1999. Subsequently, the NFRDI has conducted 53 cetacean sighting surveys within the Korean exclusive economic zone between 2000 and 2010. The surveys took a total of 760 days and cruising for 23,866 nautical miles. The finless porpoise Neophocaena asiaeorientalis was sighted most frequently (735 times), followed by the minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata (396 times), the long-beaked common dolphin Delphinus capensis (102 times), and the Pacific white-sided dolphin Lagenorhynchus obliquidens (27 times). Minke whales were distributed in the Yellow Sea and coastal area of the East Sea from spring to fall. Pacific white-sided dolphin sightings were restricted to the middle and upper coastal areas of the East Sea in summer. Common dolphins were sighted from east of the southern coast to the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula from spring to fall. Finless porpoise occurred in all Korean coastal areas, except the middle and upper eastern coast.