Comparison of the water quality simulation to the observation by fishing boats in Ise Bay

Ise Bay is one of the typical semi-enclosed bays in Japan which is surrounded by urban cities of Nagoya metropolitan area. It is reported that the environmental degradation had been caused by coastal developments and terrestrial loads, which affected marine ecosystems and fisheries. Bottom otter trawling is one of the major fishery activities in Ise Bay, which is sensitive to benthic environmental conditions such as water temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, etc. The water qualities in fishing ground of bottom otter trawling have been measured during fishing operation. Water quality sensors with data logger were installed on the fishing gear of fishing boats. In this study, we compared the results of water quality simulation and observation data obtained by fishing boats. For the water quality simulation, a three-dimensional coastal ocean model with a low-trophic ecosystem model is used. The simulated water temperature and dissolved oxygen concentration in the bottom layer were compared to the observation obtained by the fishing boats.