北太平洋秋刀魚 ( Cololabis saira ) 為台灣遠洋漁業重要漁獲物種之一,主要分佈於北太平洋海域,會隨著季節在黑潮與親潮之間進行大範圍的洄游。雖然先前日本針對北太平洋秋刀魚已有許多相關研究,然而台灣秋刀魚漁場為公海水域,與日本近岸漁場的研究地點不同,且台灣自2013年已成為北太平洋秋刀魚漁獲量最高之國家,因此了解秋刀魚基本生物學資訊以掌握資源變動情形為首要目標。本研究旨在建立台灣漁場所捕獲之北太平洋秋刀魚生活史資訊,探討其時空分佈變化,以及利用耳石第一年輪半徑 ( radius of otolith annual rings, ROA ) 作爲自然標籤來評估前人提出的秋刀魚的洄游動態。結果顯示,零歲秋刀魚的體長有由西向東遞減的趨勢。然而,一歲秋刀魚的體長在大部分的區域無顯著關係存在。這樣的結果支持了先前對於秋刀魚洄游動態的推斷,且支持秋刀魚生長差異主要來自於秋刀魚所經歷的環境條件而非年齡。此外,本研究收集了公海捕撈的秋刀魚ROA數據,填補了北太平洋海域對於此區域的資訊。再者,本研究表明秋刀魚耳石類型的組成可能與遷移動態和生長有關。擁有II型耳石的秋刀魚會較早洄游至漁場,且擁有較大的體長; 擁有III型耳石的秋刀魚會較晚洄游至漁場,且擁有較小的體長。此外,本研究探討了秋刀魚所經歷的δ18O值,提供新的面向探討有關於秋刀魚所經歷的環境條件。透過本研究的結果與日本先前研究資料互相結合,可協助掌握其生物學資訊,並提供後續漁業資源管理的相關參考依據。
Pacific saury, Cololabis saira, is one of the most important catch species in Tai-wan’s distant-water fishery. Mainly distributed in the North Pacific Ocean and seasonally migrated between Kuroshio and Oyashio waters. Although previous studies in Japan have done ample researches in Pacific saury, however, Taiwan fishery operated over an area where differ from Japan coastal fishing area. Besides, since 2013, Taiwan have been the primary countries in Pacific saury fishery. To gain the knowledge of the biological infor-mation like in age structure and body length frequency of Pacific saury during Taiwan fishing season is important for evaluation of the stock assessment and management of this fishery resource. The aim of this study was to establish the spatio-temporal biological in-formations of Pacific saury captured in the high sea area; using the radius of otolith annual ring (ROA) to evaluate the migration dynamic proposed in previous publications. The re-sults showed that the knob length of age-0 saury have a decreasing trend from the west to the east. However, the knob length of age-1 fish showed no significant differences in most areas. These results supported the previous inference of the migration dynamic of saury, and suggested the ecosystems experienced by Pacific saury were more important to saury growth than the age in days. In addition, the present study established the ROA data of saury caught in the high sea areas, filling the information about the migration route of NPO. Additionally, the present study suggested the composition of otolith types may be related to the migration dynamic and the growth. Fish with type II otoliths were the fish migrated to the fishing ground earlier and had larger knob length; fish with type III oto-liths were the fish migrated to the fishing ground later and had smaller knob length. Fur-thermore, the present study analyzed the δ18O values experienced by Pacific saury during their lifetime, providing a new insight into the environment conditions experienced by saury. The results derived in this study can help improve the fishery management of Pacific saury.