Fish catch and ocean currents Available to Purchase

The Kuroshio current starts off flowing west toward the Philippines. As it nears the archipelago, it veers northward past Taiwan. By the time it reaches the seas off Japan, it flows eastward. Taiwanese fishermen have long known that the current’s western margins are rich in mackerel, even if they were unaware of the cause: The winds that propel the current also help to pull up deep, cold, nutrient-rich water that favors phytoplankton and, in turn, tiny crustaceans and other fish food. Leo Oey of Taiwan’s National Central University and his collaborators have now added to that basic picture by examining how interannual fluctuations in the Kuroshio influence interannual fluctuations in fish catch. For their investigation, the researchers used remote-sensing measurements of ocean greenness—and therefore phytoplankton—as a proxy for surface nutrients. Satellite altimetry yielded Kuroshio’s strength and location. And a hydrodynamical model characterized the three-dimensional flow in and around the current....