Hotspots of Bony Flying fish (H. Oxycephalus) Distribution Constrained by Physical Oceanographic Condition in the central of Makassar Strait during Boreal Winter

Abstract

This study performed descriptive and qualitative approach to identify favourable Bony Flyingfish (H. Oxycephalus) distribution using primary data from gillnet flyingsih catches and multisensors satellites oceanography of sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophill-a (Chl-a) during boreal winter of 2016 (September 2016 – February 2017) in the central of Makassar strait. Emperical Cumulative Distribution Function (ECDF) has been used to analyze the suitability of physical oceanographic parameters with Bony Flyingfish catch. The results show that during boreal winter transition (September to October 2016) hotspot of Bony flyingfish distributed in the coastal water off of Pinrang region and then moved to the north at the frontal water between coastal and off Majene region during the rest of boreal winter (November 2016 – February 2017) with corresponding SST and Chl-a of 29.5 – 31.0C and 0.1 – 0.9 mg/m m3., respectivelly. ECDF analysis indicated that SST has stronger association than Chl-a contributed on the increase of Bony flyingfsih catch in the hotspots areas. The movement of hotspot from off water of Pinrang in September at the south of central Makassar to the north in the off water of Majene during the peak of boreal winter was analysed due to the Indonesian throughflow generated eddy which is still stronger during transition boreal winter and became favourable condition for the hotspot of flyingfish in the Pinrang water.