Variability Chlorophyll - A and Sea Surface Temperature As the Fishing Ground Basis of Mackerel Fish in the Arafura Sea

Abstract

Arafura Sea is one of the waters in the eastern region of Indonesia that is rich in marine and fisheries potentials because of its fertile conditions which is suitable for fishing ground. One of the fish resources which have important economic value at the Arafura Sea is big pelagic fish such as Mackerel. Thus this study aims to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of Mackerel in the Arafura Sea based on fishing boat coordinate data, to know the distribution of chlorophyll - A concentration and SST from MODIS satellite data in the Arafura Sea and to determine the correlation of chlorophyll - A and SST to the Mackerel catch distribution. This study was conducted in December 2016 until February 2017 in the Arafura Sea, image data analysis of MODIS level-3 conducted at the Laboratory of Oceanography FPIK UNDIP. The data used are Mackerel catch data, the Chlorophyll - A data and SST from MODIS satellite from June to August 2015. The results of this study showed that the distribution of Mackerel catch from June to August more were caught in August a total of 62.2 tons for 19 trips. While the chlorophyll - A between June and August ranged from 0.30 to 8.04 mg/m 3 and SST in June-August ranged from 24.6 °C - 28.4 °C. The correlation between chlorophyll - A and Mackerel catch results showed very strong correlation (correlation coefficient (r) 0.934). While the correlation between SST with the Mackerel catch showed a strong correlation (correlation coefficient (r) 0.664).