International Journal of Remote Sensing

ISSN: 0143-1161 (Print) 1366-5901 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tres20

Detection of potential fishing zones for neon

flying squid based on remote-sensing data in the
Northwest Pacific Ocean using an artificial neural
network

Jintao Wang, Wei Yu, Xinjun Chen, Lin Lei & Yong Chen

To cite this article: Jintao Wang, Wei Yu, Xinjun Chen, Lin Lei & Yong Chen (2015) Detection of
potential fishing zones for neon flying squid based on remote-sensing data in the Northwest
Pacific Ocean using an artificial neural network, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 36:13,
3317-3330, DOI: 10.1080/01431161.2015.1042121

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2015.1042121

Published online: 01 Jul 2015.

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International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2015
Vol. 36, No. 13, 3317–3330, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2015.1042121

Detection of potential fishing zones for neon flying squid based on

remote-sensing data in the Northwest Pacific Ocean using an artificial
neural network
Jintao Wanga,b,c,d, Wei Yua,b, Xinjun Chena,b,c,d*, Lin Leia,b,c,d, and Yong Chenb,e
a
College of Marine Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China; bCollaborative
Innovation Center for Distant-water Fisheries, Shanghai 201306, China; cNational Engineering
Research Centre for Oceanic Fisheries, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China; dKey
Laboratory of Sustainable Exploitation of Oceanic Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Education,
Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China; eSchool of Marine Sciences, University of
Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
(Received 20 September 2014; accepted 8 March 2015)

Ommastrephes bartramii is a short-lived species of squid and reacts rapidly to changes

in the regional environmental conditions of the fishing ground. Understanding the
preferred range of key environmental variables and predicting potential resource
distributions are critical to conserve and manage its resources. Commercial fishery
data for the western winter–spring cohort of O. bartramii from Chinese squid-jigging
vessels during 2003–2013 were used to evaluate a suitable range of three key environ-
mental variables, sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface height (SSH), and chlor-
ophyll-a (chl-a) concentration, and to explore potential fishing zones (PFZs) using an
artificial neural network. The neural interpretation diagram and independent variable
relevance analysis indicate that month, latitude, and SST had significant influences on
the PFZ distribution of O. bartramii, yielding 21.78%, 23.91%, and 26.04% of
contribution rates, respectively. Based on the sensitivity analyses, a high abundance
of O. bartramii mainly occurred in the waters between 150°–165° E and 37°–42° N
during July to August. Suitable ranges of environmental variables for O. bartramii
were 11–18°C for SST, −10 to 60 cm for SSH, and 0.1–1.7 mg/m3 for chl-a concen-
tration, respectively. The back-propagation network model was well developed and
could be used to predict the PFZ with 80% accuracy. The actual fishing grounds
coincided with the predicted PFZ, suggesting that the established model of PFZ is
effective in forecasting the potential habitat of O. bartramii in the Northwest Pacific
Ocean.

1. Introduction
In the Northwest Pacific Ocean, the Kuroshio and Oyashio currents create a transitional
zone between the subtropical and subarctic boundaries (Roden 1991), yielding a highly
productive habitat for various economically important species such as the Pacific saury
(Cololabis saira), anchovy (Engraulis japonicus), albacore (Thunnus alalunga), Japanese
common squid (Todarodes pacificus), and neon flying squid (Ommastrephes bartramii)
(Zainuddin et al. 2006; Chen, Tian, and Guan 2014). This region provides one of the most
complex physical oceanographic structures in the world, with fluctuating meandering
eddies, fronts, and streamers, as well as variable biological environmental conditions
(Sassa, Moser, and Kawaguchi 2002). Physical and biological environments in the

*Corresponding author. Email: xjchen@shou.edu.cn

© 2015 Taylor & Francis

3318 J. Wang et al.

Kuroshio–Oyashio transitional area dominate the climate and ecosystem in the western
North Pacific Ocean, which also greatly influences fish stock abundance and distribution
(Yatsu et al. 2013).
O. bartramii is a short-lived species of squid (Yatsu et al. 1997) and has been
commercially exploited by Japan since 1974 and later by South Korea and China, including
the Taiwan Province (Wang and Chen 2005). This squid undertakes seasonal migration
from the subtropical Kuroshio Current in winter to the Subarctic Oyashio Current in
summer (Gong, Kim, and An 1991; Seki 1993; Murata and Nakamura 1998). An autumn
cohort and a winter–spring cohort for O. bartramii have been inferred in the North Pacific
based on the analyses of mantle length distribution and rates of infection by helminthic
parasites (Bower and Ichii 2005). During the main fishing seasons during August to
November, Chinese squid-jigging fleets mostly target the western winter–spring cohort of
O. bartramii in the traditional fishing ground between 39°–45° N and 150°–165° E,
accounting for a significant portion of total catches in the Northwest Pacific (Chen et al.
2008a).
As an ecological opportunist, O. bartramii tends to be highly susceptible to environ-
mental changes in the spawning and feeding grounds in the western North Pacific (Yatsu
et al. 2000; Anderson and Rodhouse 2001). Spatial distributions of squid abundance are
typically related to oceanographic conditions, such as sea surface temperature (SST), sea
surface height (SSH), and chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentration, that can be remotely
monitored using satellites (Chen, Cao, et al. 2010; Chen et al. 2011). Previous studies
have employed various approaches to evaluate the relationship between the environmental
variables and the abundance distribution of O. bartramii. For example, the surface water
temperature in the spawning and fishing grounds plays an important role in regulating
population dynamics and spatial distribution of O. bartramii, especially under abnormal
climatic events such as the El Niño event (Chen, Zhao, and Chen 2007; Cao, Chen, and
Chen 2009; Yi and Chen 2012). A positive relationship was identified between the catch
per unit effort (CPUE) of the winter–spring cohort of O. bartramii and food availability
featured by chl-a (Nishikawa et al. 2014). The inter-annual variability in the CPUE of O.
bartramii could be explained by the fluctuating feeding environments of the spawning
ground, transitional region, and fishing grounds, all of which had significant impacts on
different life-history stages of O. bartramii, including paralarvae, juveniles, and adults
(Ichii et al. 2009; Wang et al. 2010; Nishikawa et al. 2014). Furthermore, the SSH was
considered to be a crucial marine environmental factor in exploring the potential fishing
zones (PFZs), used in the habitat modelling of O. bartramii (Chen, Tian, et al. 2010).
Many methods have been developed to predict PFZ distributions such as the habitat
suitability index (HSI) model, generalized linear model (GLM), and generalized additive
model (GAM). Chen et al. (2009) established an integrated HSI model for the winter–
spring cohort of O. bartramii based on the SST and SST with a horizontal gradient, and
found that the arithmetic mean model could accurately forecast squid fishing grounds in
the Northwest Pacific. Tian et al. (2009) used the GAM method to evaluate the non-linear
relationship between the CPUE of O. bartramii and the environmental variables on the
fishing ground and concluded that the spatial pattern of squid abundance could be well
predicted. General statistical models including the linear model, piecewise-linear model,
polynomial regression, exponential regression, and quantile regression have been com-
monly used in the analysis of the relationships between fishing ground distribution and
environmental conditions (Chen et al. 2013). However, the prediction of fishing ground
for a short-lived species such as O. bartramii tends to be more difficult due to unknown
mechanisms in the interactions with complex biophysical environments based on these
 International Journal of Remote Sensing 3319

conventional techniques. In fact, the mechanism of forming a fishing ground is complex

and the dynamic interactions between fish distribution and environments tend to be non-
linear. With the development of machine learning and artificial intelligence, novel meth-
ods, such as expert systems, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy reasoning, were developed and
have been increasingly used to explore PFZ (Chen et al. 2013). An artificial neural
network with functions of self-learning, strong generalizations, and fault tolerance pro-
vides an approach to evaluate complex non-linear relationships (Hush and Horne 1993;
Moody and Antsaklis 1996). The artificial neural network models can be established with
few assumptions on fishery and environmental data and, thus, differs from conventional
statistical models and also tends to be more suitable for forecasting fishing grounds
(Suryanarayana et al. 2008). Artificial neural networks have been used for predicting
fish distribution (Suryanarayana et al. 2008), such as distributions of capelin (Mallotus
villosus) in Barents Sea (Huse 2001), the European eel (Anguilla Anguilla) (Laffaille et al.
2003, 2004), and the Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) (Brosse and Lek 2002).
This study aims to improve the accuracy of predicting PFZ for O. bartramii based on
remote-sensing data using an artificial neural network. We attempt to construct an
artificial neural network model to detect PFZ for the western winter–spring cohort of O.
bartramii using remote-sensing environmental data and fishery data from the Chinese
squid-jigging fleets in the Northwest Pacific. A neural interpretation diagram, independent
variable relevance, and sensitivity analysis are used to evaluate the weights of the model
variables and examine the influences of environmental factors on PFZ distribution. A
similar approach is also applicable to other species with a similar life history.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Fishery data
Daily O. bartramii fishery data were obtained from the Chinese Squid-Jigging Technology
Group of Shanghai Ocean University from July to December during 2003–2013. The data
were digitized from fishing logs of the Chinese commercial squid fishery operating on the
traditional fishing ground between 35°–45° N and 145°–165° E in the Northwest Pacific.
Data comprised fishing dates (year and month), fishing locations (latitude and longitude),
daily catch (tonnes), and effort (days fished).
Most of the catches were from the western stocks of the winter–spring cohort of
O. bartramii and there was no bycatch in the squid fishery (Chen, Chen, et al. 2008).
Fishing vessels and their operations were almost identical. Therefore, the CPUE tends to
be a reliable indicator of local stock abundance (Chen, Chen, et al. 2008). In this study, we
defined one unit of fishing area as 0.5° latitude by 0.5° longitude. The monthly nominal
CPUE in one fishing unit of 0.5° × 0.5° was calculated as follows:

Cymi
CPUEymi ¼ ; (1)
Fymi

where CPUEymi , Cymi , and Fymi are the monthly nominal CPUE, the total catch for all the
fishing vessels within a fishing grid, and the number of fishing vessels within one fishing
grid, respectively, at i fishing unit in month m and year y. Based on the range of observed
O. bartramii CPUE data and our knowledge of the fishery, five classification levels were
defined for the quality of fishing grounds (Table 1).
3320 J. Wang et al.

Table 1. Classification levels of fishing grounds.

Code CPUE range (t day–1) Fishing grounds levels

0 <0.5 Poorer
1 0.5–1.5 Poor
2 1.5–3 Common
3 3–6 Good
4 >6 Excellent

2.2. Remotely sensed environmental data

Monthly remotely sensed data, comprising SST, SSH, and chl-a concentration, for the
fishing ground between 35°–46° N and 145°–165° E were obtained from the Live Access
Server of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ocean Watch from 2003
to 2013 (http://oceanwatch.pifsc.noaa.gov/las/servlets/dataset). The spatial resolutions
were 0.1° × 0.1°, 0.25° × 0.25°, and 0.05° × 0.05° for the SST, SSH, and chl-a,
respectively. All environmental data were converted into a 0.5° × 0.5° grid for each
month to correspond to the spatiotemporal resolution of the fishery data. For example,
SSTs in a grid with the spatial resolution of 0.5° × 0.5° were averaged by 25 point values
within the original resolution of 0.1° × 0.1°. The location (longitude and latitude) and time
(year and month) were used as indicator variables for gridding fishery data and converting
environmental data for the same spatiotemporal scales using a computer program devel-
oped in Java.

2.3. Establishment of a forecasting model based on the artificial neural network

The artificial neural network model was constructed using fishery and remote-sensing
satellite data. In this model, a feed-forward artificial neural network with back-propa-
gation algorithm, known as a multilayer perceptron, was used to train the data to
predict fishing ground levels. The feed-forward neural network contained intercon-
nected units (also called nodes or perceptrons) which were arranged in layers
(Figure 1). The neural network model was created, trained, and run using
the Artificial Neural Network Toolbox (https://www.mathworks.com/help/pdf_doc/
nnet/nnet_ug.pdf).
The first layer consisted of inputs or independent variables which included the month,
latitude, longitude, SST, SSH, and chl-a. The final layer was the output layer and had one
variable, which was the PFZ level (0–4). The layers between the input and output layers
were defined as hidden layers. We used one hidden layer with six hidden nodes in this
model (Figure 1). The input variables at each node were normalized from −1 to 1 before
inclusion in the model, and then were summed. The symmetric logistic and linear
functions were used as the activation function in the hidden nodes and the output unit
(Beale et al. 2010), respectively.
In total, there were 6938 data samples from 2003 to 2012, 70% of which were
randomly assigned to train, whereas the remaining 30% were used to cross-validate the
model. The maximum error and maximum number of iterations for stopping the iteration
process were set to 0.001 and 1000, respectively. Other parameters such as the learning
rate and momentum were set to default (Beale et al. 2010). Additionally, the 899 data
samples in 2013 were used to examine the accuracy of model forecasting. Accuracy was
 International Journal of Remote Sensing 3321

Month 1 7

Longitude 2 8

Latitude 3 9
13
SST 4 10

SSH 5 11

Chl-a 6 12

Input layer Hidden layer Output layer

Figure 1. The structure of the back-propagation artificial neural network prediction model. Solid
lines represent positive signals, whereas dotted lines represent negative signals.

calculated by the number of correct forecasting CPUE levels divided by the number of all
data samples.
Some ecologists have used sensitivity analysis to quantify the contribution of each
independent variable (Lek et al. 1996; Scardi 1996; Recknagel et al. 1997) to avoid
treating neural networks as a black box and to understand the relative importance of
independent variables. Given a sufficient understanding of the fishing ground forma-
tion mechanism of this squid, we found that it was possible to interpret the results of a
neural network PFZ model. After the selection of the final model, we examined the
input variable’s relevance and conducted sensitivity analysis for each variable to
determine how a favourable PFZ chosen by the squid might vary with different
variables.
Relevance analysis is a method to compare the contribution of variables to the PFZ.
The relevance of each input variable was simply the sum square of weights for that input
variable divided by the sum square of weights for all input variables (Özesmi and Özesmi
1999).
The sensitivity analyses were conducted by the following procedures: (1) calculate the
mean, median, minimum, and maximum values of each variable; (2) set all input
independent variables except one to each of these values in turn; and (3) change values
of the independent variable left out in Step (2) from its minimum to maximum values and
plot the fishing ground level. In this study, we chose the median value to represent a
general view because maximum data samples of median value of each variable were
available (Özesmi and Özesmi 1999).

2.4. Forecasting fishing ground levels overlapped with the remote-sensing images
The PFZ of O. bartramii were characterized by meandering eddies and frontal zones
(Chen 1995, 1997) that could be visualized from the SST and OceanColor images. The
predicted fishing ground levels were then overlapped with the remote-sensing images to
more accurately detect PFZ.
3322 J. Wang et al.

Table 2. Performance of the back-propagation artificial neural network

model in the prediction of fishing ground classification levels.

Measures Result

Training sample 4857

Validating sample 2081
Testing sample 899
Training MSE 0.75
Validating MSE 0.79
Testing MSE 0.62
Percentage of correct prediction of fishing ground 3739/4857 = 0.77
classification level using a training sample
Percentage of correct prediction of fishing ground 1560/2081 = 0.75
level using a validating sample
Percentage of correct prediction of fishing ground 720/899 = 0.8
level using a testing sample

3. Results
3.1. Performances of the artificial neural network forecasting model
The artificial neural network forecasting model was trained based on sampling data. The
weights of models changed, multiplied by momentum from the input to output layers in
one iteration, and the best trained model was selected with the least mean squared error
(MSE) after 35 model iterations. The MSEs of training, validating, and testing were 0.75,
0.79, and 0.62, respectively (Table 2). In addition, the model was tested by the fishery
data in 2013, and its forecasting accuracy was approximately 80% (Table 2).

3.2. The use of an artificial neural network prediction model for interpreting PFZ
The predicted neural interpretation diagrams showed non-linear relationships between the
input variables (month, latitude, longitude, SST, SSH, and chl-a) and classification levels
of fishing grounds (Figure 1). The weights of each unit in the input variables and hidden
layers had positive and negative impacts synchronously on the fishing ground level. The
month, latitude, and SST exhibited more significant influences on the classification levels
of PFZ compared to longitude, SSH, and chl-a (Figure 1).
The relevance of the six variables in the forecasting model was listed in Table 3. The
month, latitude, and SST were the most important variables in the forecasting model,
constituting 21.78%, 23.91%, and 26.04% of the variance, respectively.

Table 3. Variable relevance of prediction model

using an artificial neural network.

Variable Contribution (%)

Month 21.78
Longitude 11.91
Latitude 23.91
SST 26.04
SSH 5.54
Chl-a 10.79
 International Journal of Remote Sensing 3323

4 4

Prediction fishing ground level

Prediction fishing ground level

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
7 8 9 10 11

145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
Month Longitude(ºE)

(a) (b)

4 4
Prediction fishing ground level

Prediction fishing ground level

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
35.0
35.5
36.0
36.5
37.0
37.5
38.0
38.5
39.0
39.5
40.0
40.5
41.0
41.5
42.0
42.5
43.0
43.5
44.0
44.5
45.0

SST(ºC)
Latitude(ºN)
(c) (d)
4 4
Prediction fishing ground level

Prediction fishing ground level

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1 3.3 3.5
–20
–15
–10
–5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95

–3
SSH(cm) Chl-a(mg m )

(e) (f)

Figure 2. Sensitivity analyses for the six variables. In each panel of the figure, all variables were
set to their median values except for the variable being evaluated. (a) Sensitivity analyses for the
variable ‘month’; (b) sensitivity analyses for the variable ‘longitude’; (c) Sensitivity analyses for
the variable ‘latitude’; (d) Sensitivity analyses for the variable ‘SST’; (e) Sensitivity analyses for
the variable ‘SSH’, and (f) Sensitivity analyses for the variable ‘chl-a’.

According to the sensitivity analysis, significant spatiotemporal changes were shown

in the PFZ. High levels of PFZ of O. bartramii mainly occurred in August, September,
and October (Figure 2(a)). The areas between 150°–165° E and 37°–42° N yielded the
most productive squid abundance (Figures 2(b) and (c)). The preferred ranges of environ-
mental variables for O. bartramii were 11–18°C for SST (Figure 2(d)), −15 to 60 cm for
SSH (Figure 2(e)), and 0.1–1.7 mg/m3 for chl-a (Figure 2(f)), respectively. However, chl-a
yielded limited influences on the PFZ, based on the sensitivity analysis (Figure 2(f)).

3.3. Forecasting PFZ during July to November in 2013

The established artificial neural network model was used to forecast the monthly PFZ
during July to November in 2013 (Figure 3). In July, the levels of PFZ were
3324 J. Wang et al.

Figure 3. The actual and forecasting fishing ground classification levels using satellite remote-
sensing data from July to November in 2013. The left column represents actual fishing locations and
its fishing ground classification level. The right column represents the forecasted fishing ground
classification levels overlaid on chl-a images.
 International Journal of Remote Sensing 3325

predominantly less than level 2. A few high levels of PFZ were located in the waters of
152°–153° E and 39°–41° N as well as 162°–164° E and 39°–40° N, in which the average
CPUE was 1.5–2.0 t day–1. In August, PFZ with level 2 or 3 classification accounted for
more than 50%, and the high PFZ with a level 3 classification was mainly concentrated in
the waters of 151°–153° E and 40°–43° N near the front of the 20°C isotherm, and the
average CPUE reached 3.0–4.0 t day–1. In September, PFZs with levels 2–4 classification
yielded more than 60% of the total fishing ground. High PFZ with levels 3 and 4
classification were mainly concentrated in the waters of 150°–153° E and around 43° N
and 157°–158° E and 41°–43° N near the front of the 20°C isotherm, and the average
CPUE reached 3.0–6.0 t day–1. In October, the classification levels 2 and 3 of PFZ fell to
30% of the total fishing ground. High PFZs of level 2 or 3 classification were mainly
distributed in the regions between 154°–159° E and 41°–44° N near the front of the 15°C
isotherm. In November, the levels of PFZ (2–3) increased to 51% of the total catch,
whereas PFZs of levels 2 or 3 classification were mainly concentrated in the waters of
155°–159° E and 40°–42° N as well as 148°–150° E and 40°–44° N near the front of the
15°C isotherm (Figure 3).

4. Discussion
The impacts of environmental variations on fish abundance and fishing ground distribu-
tion are well recognized (Chen 2004). Understanding how fish species react to climate
change and variations in the regional/local environments and predicting the dynamics of
the fish population are essential for the effective management of marine resources
(Botsford, Castilla, and Peterson 1997; McCann, Botsford, and Hasting 2003). This article
presents a neural network approach for evaluating the sensitivity of western stocks of the
winter–spring cohort of O. bartramii to spatiotemporal changes in environmental factors
and for predicting PFZ of O. bartramii in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. Artificial neural
networks are considered ‘black box’ models with the recognition of their ability for
effective prediction (Paruelo and Tomasel 1997) although it is difficult to obtain a good
understanding of the underlying mechanisms in the models (Anderson 1995; Brey, Jarre-
Teichmann, and Borlich 1996). Some methods have been developed to understand how
the ‘black box’ works, including a neural interpretation diagram, independent variable
relevance, and sensitivity analyses (Lek et al. 1996; Scardi 1996; Recknagel et al. 1997;
Özesmi and Özesmi 1999). In this study, the neural network structure suggests that the
process for exploring PFZ was complicated. The relationship between the independent
variables and classification levels of fishing grounds was non-linear. The BP forecasting
model not only predicted PFZ accurately, but also provided a critical evaluation of
suitable ranges of environmental variables for O. bartramii through neural interpretation
diagrams, relevance, and sensitivity analyses. Based on these analyses, PFZs, combined
with the surrounding oceanographic features, were further analysed by overlapping
remote-sensing images on the fishing ground. For example, in September, the fishing
ground between 42°–44° N and150°–160° E had relatively higher levels of PFZ predicted
by the model; this area on the remote-sensing image also had high chl-a concentration and
low SST (but a higher SST gradient) (Figure 3).
Chen and Chiu (1999) suggested that the distribution and abundance of O. bartramii
were strongly affected by environmental conditions such as SST. Chen, Zhao, and Chen
(2007) found that El Niño/La Niña events had a significant effect on the spatial distribu-
tion of fishing grounds. When the feeding area was affected by a La Niña event, the SST
generally increased, the subarctic front moved north, and the high-yield fishing grounds
3326 J. Wang et al.

were located farther north; if the feeding grounds were influenced by an El Niño event,
the SST generally decreased, the subarctic front moved south, and the fishing grounds
moved southward and were also more aggregated. This shift in the distribution of fishing
ground for O. bartramii was closely related to SST. In this article, according to neural
interpretation diagrams and the relevances (Figure 1; Table 3), we found that the SST was
the most important environmental factor in the formation of fishing grounds and it had the
greatest influence on the prediction model, suggesting that SST could be used as an
indicator to explore PFZ. The favourable range of SST for O. bartramii was 11–18°C.
These results are generally consistent with those reported by previous studies (Chen 1997;
Chen and Liu 2006). Many studies showed that optimal SSTs for squid varied with fishing
months and areas; it appeared that the optimal SST gradually decreased from west to east
(Chen, Liu, and Chen 2008). In the waters of 140°–150° E, the monthly optimal SSTs
were 17–19°C, 18–22°C, 17–19°C, 13–18°C, and 10–14°C, respectively, during July to
November (Chen 1995, 1997; Shen, Fan, and Cui 2004; Chen and Tian 2005). In the
waters of 150°–165° E, the monthly optimum SSTs were 12–14°C, 14–17°C, 15–19°C,
14–18°C, 10–13°C, and 12–15°C, respectively, for the months of June to November
(Chen 1997, 1999; Wang et al. 2003; Shen, Fan, and Cui 2004; Chen and Tian 2005;
Chen and Liu 2006).
Other environmental variables (chl-a and SSH) also significantly affected the distribu-
tion of O. bartramii. The chl-a concentration explained 10.79% of the total variance,
whereas the SSH had the least impact – explaining only 5.54% of the total variance. The
existence of plankton is a basic condition for the formation of squid fishing grounds
(Chen 2004). The chl-a concentration is a good indicator of the food availability for squid.
High chl-a concentrations yield good feeding environments, providing higher volumes of
nutrients for the phytoplankton and zooplankton as well as dissolved organic materials
that are associated with food density and availability for the O. bartramii (Nishikawa et al.
2014). Wang et al. (2003) reported that a skewed distribution function could be used to
describe the relationship between chl-a concentration and the squid catch in the waters of
150°–165° E and 41°–45° N during August and October. The area with chl-a concentra-
tions ranging from 0.15 to 3 mg/m3 produced 95% of the total catch. In the waters of 152°
E–171° W and 39°–42° N during June and July, Xu, Cui, and Huang (2004) suggested
that squid tended to aggregate near areas with the highest abundance (50–100 ind m–3) of
crustaceans (mainly for Copepoda and Thaliacea).
The SSH field is often coupled with the dynamics (currents) and thermodynamics
(heat balance) of the upper ocean. Convergences and divergences of mass transport in the
surface layer of the ocean result in positive and negative sea levels, respectively (Polito,
Sato, and Liu 2000). This suggests that a satellite altimetry SSH map may be effective for
predicting a water mass front, which is a potential aggregating mechanism for planktons
as well as their predators, such as squid (Chen et al. 2011).
Levels of PFZ were high during August to October and low in July and November;
this result coincided with the findings reported by Chen and Tian (2006). Thus, O.
bartramii undertakes seasonal north–south migration. They tended to locate in the south-
ern waters of the transitional zones in July, and then migrate into the traditional fishing
grounds during August to October, leading to high abundance during the main fishing
season. In November, mature squids begin to spawn and shifted southward, when
abundance would decline again.
In summary, the BP forecasting model on PFZ was well developed with approxi-
mately 80% accuracy. The actual fishing grounds during July to November in 2013 were
consistent with the predicted PFZ. These findings suggested that the rationality and
 International Journal of Remote Sensing 3327

validity of employing the artificial neural network in this study are acceptable. The
established model of PFZ can be used for forecasting the potential habitat of O. bartramii
in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, it is important that the development of the
neural network model is based on an in-depth understanding of the oceanography and
habitat of target fish species.

Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Chinese Squid-Jigging Technology Group of Shanghai Ocean University for
providing the catch data and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for providing
the environmental data.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
This study was financially supported by the National High-Tech R&D Programme (863 Programme)
of China under grant number 2012AA092303, the National Key Technologies R&D Programme of
China under grant number 2013BAD13B00, and the Shanghai Universities First-Class Disciplines
Project (Fisheries A). Y. Chen was supported by SHOU International Center for Marine Studies and
the Shanghai 1000 Talent Programme.

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