Surface layer biomass distribution characteristics using optical and hydroacoustic 
            remote sensing methods in the Waters of Northeastern Taiwan

       Cheng-Hsin Liao1, Kuo-Tien Lee1, MIng-Anne Lee1 and Hsueh-Jung Lu2

     Oceanographic conditions  and biomass distribution characteristics  in the waters 
of northeastern Taiwan, where the Kuroshio Current meets the East China  Sea, were 
investigated using  hydroacoustic survey  data, CTD (Conductivity,  Temperature and 
Depth) data and NOAA's AVHRR infrared  images.  In this region, a cold eddy with 
low temperature and  high salinity was found  near the island of  Peng-Chia Yu.  In 
the summers  of 1994  and 1995,  the sea  surface temperature  isotherms (gradients) 
were unconducted.  The biomass was low  and decreased with depth in the center of 
the  eddy.   Higher  biomass concentrations  were found  in  two nearby  areas:  the 
waters  near the  periphery of  the  cold eddy  and  the coastal  waters of  northern 
Taiwan.   The former  had low temperature  and high  salinity, while the  latter had 
high temperature and  low salinity.  In  mid-April, 1995, the sea  surface temperature 
isotherms (gradients)  were very complex.   A high  biomass area was  found in the 
waters where the warm Taiwan  current mixes with continental coastal water of low 
temperature and  low salinity, while low  biomass areas were found  in the center of 
the cold  eddy (low  temperature and  high salinity),  and the front  of the  Kuroshio 
Current (high  temperature and high salinity).   Since acoustic survey  data (Sv) and 
satellite  image  data  (SST) have  an  important  spatial  component,  a Geographic 
Information System (GIS) was used to display and analyze some of these data.