Review of fisheries biology of neon flying squid （Ommastrephes bartramii） in the North Pacific Ocean

Abstract:

Ommastrephes bartramii is an important economic cephalopod and also one of main fishing targets for Chinese squid jigging fleets. The knowledge of fishery biology is a basic condition for sustainable exploitation and utilization. The literature of population structure, migration, age and growth, spawning, feeding of O.bartramii has been reviewed, and comments and suggestion are provided in this paper. O.bartramii in the North Pacific Ocean can be sorted into four seasonal geographic cohorts, i.e. eastern stock of the fall cohort, central stock of the fall cohort, western stock of the winterspring cohort and centraleastern stock of the winterspring cohort. This classification need to be confirmed by the method of molecular biology. Generally, the squid made northsouthward migration, the northward migration during the feeding period has been studied extensively; however the southward migration during spawning period was not clearly investigated, so the investigation on the temporal and spatial distribution of spawning ground is needed. Moreover, it is proposed that the spawning behavior of O.bartramii should be further studied, especially on the biologic process from spawning to hatching and paralarvae. The living environment of O.bartramii between west and east Pacific is different; the diel movement in the different areas has not been fully understood. The life span of O.bartramii is about one year. The interannual variability on recruitment of O.bartramii and its relationship between marine environments have initially been mastered. For the purpose of sustainable utilization of this squid, the international cooperation is needed to conduct fisheries survey and biological study on O.bartramii, and it is also needed for us to develop the squid fisheries ecosystem monitoring program and establish assessment model based on the life history characteristics and management strategy evaluation model.