Abstract
Red sea bream Pagrus major stock enhancement attempts in Kagoshima Bay were started in the back bay area in 1974. The project has developed into a large-scale operation, and over one million juveniles have been released in the entire bay since 1981. The commercial catch of red sea bream in this bay had decreased temporarily to 71 tons in 1976, but recovered as the project progressed to 213 tons in 1991. Stocking effectiveness of red sea bream in this bay is evaluated by a fish market census. The census has been mainly conducted at Kagoshima Fish Market about twice a week, where more than 80% of red sea bream fished in the bay are landed. Red sea bream were classified into wild or released individuals by the deformity of the inter-nostril epidermis (IE's). Appearance rates of the fish which have the deformity of IE's (DIE fish) reared in Kagoshima Mariculture Society are more than 80%. The mixture rate of DIE fish in fishes investigated were between 15.3% and 73.5% from 1989 to 2000. The recapture rate of releases in 1990, 9 years after they were released, was estimated to be 8.8%. The ratio of the total landing cash value to the cost of seeds excluding personnel and facilities was estimated to be 6.99.
