• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.145-154
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• 2009

Seasonal variation in species composition and abundance of shallow water fish from the Hakampo and Yeonpo beaches in Taean in the western coast of Korea were determined by the analysis of monthly samples collected by a beach seine from January to December, 2007. A total of 30 species, 964 individuals and 10,564.1 g of fish were collected from the Hakampo beach, and a total of 46 species, 4,447 individuals and 28,622.4 g of fish from the Yeonpo beach. The juveniles of coastal fish such as Chelon haematochelius, Paralichthys olivaceus, Repomucenus lunatus, Sebastes schlegelii and Takifugu niphobles were predominated in abundance. And the juveniles of pelagic migrants such as Konosirus punctatus, Sardinella zunasi and Engraulis japonicus were abundantly collected between summer and autumn. The fish collected were mainly composed of small-sized species and juveniles. C. haematochelius and migrant fish were young of the year, and commercially important fish such as S. schlegeli, P. olivaceus, Pleuronectes yokohamae and Hexagrammos otakii were 1 to 2 years old juveniles. It is considered that they use the shallow water as a nursery ground until they move out to the deeper water. The number of species and abundance were lower in the fine sand Hakamp beach than in the muddy sand Yeonpo beach where some Zostera marina were also found. In Yeonpo beach the adult of Gymnogobius mororanus preferred to live in the muddy shallow water and Syngnathus schlegeli living in the sea grass were also abundantly collected in spring in addition to resident fish and pelagic migrants in warm months. The resident species were more abundance in the Taean beach than in the beach located in the southern part of the west coast of Korea where the juveniles of pelagic migrants were more abundant.