Bull. Jpn. Soc. Fish. Oceanogr. 71(1), Page 38-44, 2007   Distribution of fishing grounds of larval Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus) based on Radar Image Analysis and Oceanographic Structures in Osaka Bay Yoshihiro Yoneda1, Tsukasa Yoshida2†, Kenji Nakamura2, Yosuke Abe2 and Hideaki Okamoto2 1 Kansai Airport Research Institute, 2-9-3, Tanimati, Chuo, Osaka, 540-0012, Japan. 2 Chateau Marine Survey Co., Ltd., 1-4-2, Katamati, Miyakojima, Osaka, 534-0025, Japan. †e-mail: yosida@chateau-kaiyou.co.jp Commercial fishing of larval Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus) in Osaka Bay has been carried out by boat seine nets. The fluctuation of the resources quantity can be understood from the relation of fishing grounds and oceanographic structures. The distribution of boat seine nets was estimated from the analysis of the radar image of Osaka Bay and relations between fishing grounds of larval Japanese anchovy and oceanographic structures were compared. The fishing grounds were observed in the areas affected by high sea surface temperature waters which inflowed from the Kii Channel. The fishing grounds were observed along clear fronts of water temperature. This study improved the accuracy to identify the fishing grounds and clarified the relation between the fishing grounds and oceanographic structures. Key words: Japanese anchovy, Osaka Bay, fishing ground, boat seine, radar