Abstract
We conducted a tagging survey to study the movement and growth of whitespotted conger Conger myriaster in the eastern Seto Inland Sea and found that the fish moved to Osaka Bay and the coastal waters of the Kii Channel from the northeastern Harima Nada Sea, the release site, through the Akashi Strait from January to August. Total length and gonadsomatic index of females recaptured in the Osaka Bay-Kii Channel waters were larger and higher, respectively, than those in the Harima Nada Sea-Akashi Strait waters, suggesting that the fish conducted a pre-spawning migration. The fish were recaptured up to 420 days after release and exhibited various growth rates ranging from 0.1 to 2 mm day-1. There was no particular trend in age of recaptured females although the age ranged from 1+ to 3+. Not all the released fish passed through the Akashi Strait, nor they did always move to Osaka Bay even when they were at liberty for a long period. Some large-sized fish remained in the Akashi Strait. These results suggest that there are two types of groups (a locally resident group and a migratory group) and that whitespotted conger have a complicated migratory behavior.
