• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.345-352
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• 2022

In this study, the dietary habits of the spinyhead sculpin Dasycottus setiger were investigated based on 156 specimens collected seasonally between May 2018 and February 2019 from the East Sea off the Korean coast. In terms of the weight contribution (%W), the main food items of the spinyhead sculpin were found to be teleosts (33.5%), followed by carid shrimps (13.8%), amphipods (13.3%), cephalopods (12.0%), and polychaetes (7.1%). Dietary analyses based on the weight contribution of different prey taxa in the diet of the spinyhead sculpin revealed considerable variation in the dietary composition in terms of the sampling region and fish size implying intra-specific dietary segregation. The spinyhead sculpin showed a size-related trends in dietary shift from amphipods to carid shrimps and teleosts in northern region, and from carid shrimps and mysids to teleosts and cephalopods in middle eastern coast. Multivariate analyses of dietary changes revealed that the dietary composition of spinyhead sculpin is significantly associated with the sampling site, but not the fish size. Amphipods contributed more to the diets of the northern population, while mysids typified the diets of spinyhead scuplin inhabiting the middle eastern coast, indicating differences in available food resources between the two study regions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.317-326
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• 2017

Comparative fishing experiments were conducted in the eastern coastal waters near Uljin, Korea from 2002 to 2004, using the experimental trammel nets to estimate the selectivity for spinyhead sculpin Dasycottus setiger. The inner panels of the nets were made of nylon monofilament with four mesh sizes (82.2, 89.4, 104.8, and 120.2 mm) while its two outer panels were made of twisted nylon multifilament with a mesh size of 510 mm. The SELECT (Share Each Length's Catch Total) procedure with maximum likelihood method was applied to obtain a master selection curve. The different functional models (normal, lognormal, bi-normal, and logistic model) were fitted to the catch data. The lognormal model with the fixed relative fishing intensity was chosen as the best-fitted selection curve through comparison of model deviance and AIC (Akaike's Information Criterion). The optimum relative length (the ratio of fish total length to mesh size) with the maximum relative efficiency was obtained as 2.492.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2013

The investigation for species composition and catch in the Korean deep-water of the East Sea (also known as Sea of Japan) was carried out with trammel nets of 7 mesh sizes (6.1~24.2cm) offshore Donghae (2006) and Yangyang (2007) of Korea. The catches were 1,268kg and composed of 37 species between 200m and 1,200m in depth. The principal species caught were Taknka's snailfish, salmon snailfish, red snow crab, hunchback sculpin, snow crab, spinyhead sculpin, Tanaka's eelpout, Alaska cod and so on. Those were target fish for commercial value except salmon snailfish. The mesh sizes for the largest catch were 10.6cm and 15.2cm in the fishing ground of Donghae and Yangyang, respectively. The habitat of snow crab was shallower than that of red snow crab in both areas. Trammel net enabled to investigate fish in deep-water with small fishing vessel and rather cheap expenses in contrast to bottom trawl that required too much of it. With increasing inner mesh size of trammel net the mean size of some principal species such as Taknka's snailfish, spinyhead sculpin, hunchback sculpin, Pacific cod, snow crab, red snow crab and hybrid between snow crab and red snow crab tended to be large in certain range of mesh size.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.281-289
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• 2016

Spinyhead sculpin Dasycottus setiger, a species of cold water fish, is distributed along the eastern coastal waters of Korea. A series of fishing experiments was carried out in the waters near Uljin from June, 2002 to November, 2004, using the experimental monofilament gill nets of different mesh sizes (82.2, 89.4, 104.8, and 120.2 mm) to describe the selectivity of the gill net for the fish. The SELECT (Share Each Length's Catch Total) analysis with maximum likelihood method was applied to fit the different functional models (normal, lognormal, and bi-normal models) for selection curves to the catch data. The bi-normal model with the fixed relative fishing intensity was selected as the best-fit selection curve by AIC (Akaike's Information Criterion) comparison. For the best-fit selection curve, the optimum relative length (the ratio of fish total length to mesh size) with the maximum efficiency and the selection range ($R_{50%,large}-R_{50%,small}$) of 50% retention were obtained as 2.363 and 0.851, respectively. The ratios of body girth to mesh perimeter at 100% retention where the selection curve of each mesh size represented the optimum total length were calculated as the range of 0.86 ~ 0.87.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.179-184
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• 2007

Maturity and spawning of spinyhead sculpin, Dasycottus setiger were investigated using samples collected by the eastern sea danish seine and gillnet in the East Sea of Korea from January to December 2004. We analyzed monthly changes in maturity stages, gonadosomatic index (GSI), egg diameter, fecundity, total length at 50% group maturity, and sex ratio. GSI began to increase in August, reached a maximum between September and November, and decreased in December. The spawning period was August to December, and the main spawning period was September to November. The fecundity ranged from 6,210 eggs at 22.3 cm (TL) to 15,898 eggs at 32.2 cm (TL). The relationship between total length (TL) and fecundity (F) was $F=25.475TL^{1.818}$ ($R^2=0.761$), and F increased with TL. The TL at 50% group maturity was estimated to be 23.4 cm. The sex ratio was 1 : 1.3 (female : male), indicating the male population was seem to be slightly predominant.