Operational Prediction of the Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) Distribution for Neon Flying Squid in Central North Pacific by Using FORA Dataset and a New Data Assimilation System SKUIDS

Hiromichi Igarashi1, Yoichi Ishikawa1, Tsuyoshi Wakamatsu2, Yusuke Tanaka1, Shiro Nishikawa1, Haruka Nishikawa1, Masafumi Kamachi3, Tsurane Kuragano3, Yasushi Takatsuki3, Yosuke Fujii4, Norihisa Usui3, Takahiro Toyoda5, Nariaki Hirose3, Mitsuo Sakai6, Sei-ichi Saitoh7 and Yutaka Imamura8, (1)JAMSTEC Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Kanagawa, Japan, (2)Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama, Japan, (3)Meteorological Research Institute, Ibaraki, Japan, (4)Meteorological Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, (5)Meteorological Research Institute, Japan Meteorological Agency, Oceanography and Geochemistry Research Department, Tsukuba, Japan, (6)Fisheries Research Agency, Tohoku National Fisheries Research Institute, Hachinohe, Japan, (7)Hokkaido Univ, Arctic Research Center, Sapporo, Japan, (8)Aomori Prefectural Industrial Technology Research Center, Fisheries Research Institute, Hiranai-machi, Japan
Abstract:
The neon flying squid (Ommastrephes bartramii) has a wide-spread distribution in subtropical and temperate waters in the North Pacific, which plays an important role in the pelagic ecosystem and is one of the major targets in Japanese squid fisheries. The main fishing areas for Japanese commercial vessels are located in the central North Pacific (35-45N, around the date line) in summer. In this study, we have developed several kinds of habitat suitability index (HSI) models of the neon flying squid for investigating the relationship between its potential habitat and the ocean state variations in the target area. For developing HSI models, we have used a new ocean reanalysis dataset FORA (4-dimensional variational Ocean Re-Analysis) produced by JAMSTEC/CEIST and MRI-JMA. The horizontal resolution is 0.1*0.1 degree of latitude and longitude with 54 vertical levels, which can provide realistic fields of 3-dimensional ocean circulation and environmental structures including meso-scale eddies. In addition, we have developed a new 4D-VAR (4-dimensional variational) ocean data assimilation system for predicting ocean environmental changes in the main fishing grounds. We call this system “SKUIDS” (Scalable Kit of Under-sea Information Delivery System). By using these prediction fields of temperature, salinity, sea surface height, horizontal current velocity, we produced daily HSI maps of the neon flying squid, and provided them to the Japanese commercial vessels in operation. Squid fishermen can access the web site for delivering the information of ocean environments in the fishing ground by using Inmarsat satellite communication on board, and show the predicted fields of subsurface temperatures and HSI. Here, we present the details of SKUIDS and the web-delivery system for squid fishery, and some preliminary results of the operational prediction.
Back to: Advances in Interdisciplinary Research to Understand and Sustain Coastal and Marine Ecosystems IV Posters