Application of a Luminous Bacterium to Fish-attracting Purpose

Abstract

In order to apply the bioluminescence of luminous bacteria to fishing industry, studies on the attracting effect of a luminous material containing immobilized luminous cells and a luminous raw bait attached with luminous cells on various kinds of fish were carried out. Water tank experiments showed that the luminous material had an attracting effect on fresh-water shrimp Palaemon paucidens, but on the contrary, apparent evading effect on parrot fish Oplegnathus fasciatus. Fishing ground experiments revealed that the luminous material had an attracting effect on king crab Paralithodes camtschaticus caught with a trap, squid as well as prawn Penaeus orientalis caught by trawl fishing, neither an attracting nor an evading effect on crab Chionoecetes opilio caught with a trap, and a distinct evading effect on shrimp Pandalus borealis caught with a trap. Fishing ground experiments also showed that the luminous raw bait attached with luminous cells had a tremendous effect on bottom fishing by which grunt, gopher, dorado, scorpionfish, mullet, flatfish and shark were caught, and the number of caught fish was 4.8 times larger than that of the control. In addition, the luminous raw bait seemed to have some attracting effect on tuna caught with tuna long lines and the number of caught tuna was 1.2 times larger than that of the control. © 1980, The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science. All rights reserved.