Bull. Jpn. Soc. Fish. Oceanogr. 80(1), Page 27-34, 2016   Catch fluctuation of yellowtail species in relation to fluctuations in the geographical catch center Hirotoshi Shishidou1†, Hideo Sakaji2 and Yongjun Tian3* 1 Kagoshima Prefecture Fisheries Technology and Development Center, 160-10 Iwamoto, Ibusuki, Kagoshima 891-0315, Japan 2 National Research Institute of Fisheries and Environment of Inland Sea, Fisheries Research Agency, 2-17-5 Maruishi, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima 739-0452, Japan 3 Japan Sea National Fisheries Research Institute, Fisheries Research Agency, 1-5939-22 Suido-cho, Chuo-ku, Niigata, Niigata 951-8121, Japan * 現所属：College of Fisheries, Ocean Univeristy of China, Yushan Road 5, Qingdao 266003, China † E-mail: shishidou-hirotoshi@pref.kagoshima.lg.jp Many studies reported that the catch of yellowtail species increased largely in the waters around northern Japan, particularly in the northern boundary of yellowtail distribution under the warm regime after 1990’s; whereas only a few studies focused on the catch in the water around Kagoshima, southwestern Japan and the southern boundary of the distribution. In this study, the catch fluctuations of yellowtail species in the water around Kagoshima have been analyzed and compared with those around Japan. We calculated the geographical center of yellowtail species catch and examined it’s relationships with regime shifts, sea surface temperature (SST) fluctuations, and catch fluctuations. The results indicate there was a significant negative correlation between the long-term fluctuations of catch in Kagoshima and Japan excluding Kagoshima (p‹0.001), and the former increased (decreased) with the decrease (increase) in the latter with 4 years lag. It shows that the geographical center of the catch shifted northeastward with the increase in the SST in the mid latitudinal zone of Japan. The geographical center of the catch shifts southwestward (northeastward) in the cold (warm) regime, suggested that the fluctuations in the geographical center of the catch correspond well with regime shifts. Accordingly, the contrary trends in the catch between Japan and Kagoshima were interpreted as resulting from the changes in the distribution of yellowtail in responding to environmental SST fluctuations. Key words: yellowtail, catch fluctuation, center of catch, regime shift, SST