Bull. Jpn. Soc. Fish. Oceanogr. 68(2), Page 93-96, 2004   The consideration of the influence of fishing effort on catch fluctuations of snow crab Chionoecetes opilio along the Coast of Fukui Mitsuru Moriyama Fukui Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station, 23-1, Urasoko, Tsuruga, 914-0843, Japan Fukui Food Processing Research Institute, 1-1, Tsubonouchi, Maruoka, 910-0343, Japan e-mail: mitsuru_moriyama@fklab.fukui.fukui.jp In order to identify the reasons for the annual change in snow crab catch, the relationship between the fishing effort, which consists of the number of fishing boats and the operating days in the snow crab fishing season and the catch was investigated along the coast of Fukui. The investigation studied the relationship between fishing effort in the snow crab fishing season in the year t and the catch in the years t+n (n=0, 1, 2,�E�E�E, 15). As a result, it was found that the annual catch was significantly related to the mean number of fishing boats in the years t-9, t-10, t-11 and t-12, (r=-0.78). It was suggested that the catch would be affected by the fishing effort, especially the number of fishing boats. The continuous monitoring of the number of fishing boats will hopefully make it possible to predict the catch of snow crab. Key words: snow crab, catch, fishing effort, prediction