The Demersal Fishes of Asan Bay -I. Optimal Sample Size-

The demersal fishes of Asan Bay were collected by an otter trawl in August 1990 to determine optimum sample size for the analysis of community structure. A total of 17 species comprising 957 individuals and 21,840 grams in biomass was collected. Predominant species were Cynoglossus joyneri, Thrissa koreana, Hexagrammos otakii and Johnius belengerii. Coefficients of variation for fish numbers in ten replicate tows ranged from 2.2 to for four abundant species and from 52.2 to when all species were considered. The cumulative number of species increased rapidly until 4 hauls, and less than 1 species per haul in average was added thereafter. The cumulative diversity index reached nearly an asymptote value when three of samples were combined. Variance in the number of individuals diminished as the sample size increased. The ratio of variance to mean numbers (dispersion index) was not significantly different from the unity when first 4-haul samples were combined. Four of 20-minute trawl haul are proposed to be a proper sampling size for the unbiased estimation of abundance in the study area.