Abstract
The maturity and spawning of Pacific cod, Gadus macrocephalus, was studied using samples caught by gillnets in the East Sea from January to December 2003. Monthly changes of maturity observed with the naked eyes for females showed that maturing Pacific cod appeared from August, and their numbers increased to $83\%\;and\;100\%$ in November and December, respectively. In January, mature and spawning Pacific cod were observed for the first time and composed over $40\%$ of the population. In February, the proportion of spawning individuals increased to over $50\%$, however, the mature individuals decreased to less than $10\%$. In March, mature fish were not found, and all were in an immature (spent) or spawning state. From April to July all fish remained in immature condition. The males maintained this trend with the females, whereas, mature males appeared from November to March. Monthly changes in the gonadosomatic index (GSI) of females and males showed higher values both in January and February and declined sharply in March. The lower value remained until October and then began to increase from November for the female population. For the males, however, this value remained lower until August, and then began to increase from September, and showed higher values in October through December than in January and February. These results indicated that the spawning season of Pacific cod was from December to March, and the main spawning season was from January to February, and the period of the spawning season was longer for males than the females. The diameter of the matured oocytes was 0.80-1.10 mm with a single mode of 0.95 mm. Fecundity was 1,300,000-9,400,000 in total length of 65-95 cm and the relationship between the total length (TL, cm) and fecundity (Fc) was Fc= $180,248\timesTL-10,883,638$. The total length at first maturity was observed at 57 cm for females and 47 cm for males. The size at $50\%$ group maturity was estimated to be 63.9 cm for females and 56.0 cm for males.
