Transport of larval jack mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) estimated from trajectories of satellite‐tracked drifters and advective velocity fields obtained from sequential satellite thermal images in the eastern East China Sea

Transport processes of jack mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) larvae in the waters off the west coast of Kyushu in the eastern East China Sea, have been investigated using satellite‐tracked surface drifters and consecutive satellite thermal images. Trajectories of drifters describe northward flows over the continental shelf, eastward flows of the Kuroshio south‐west of Kyushu, and a weak clockwise gyre off the west coast of Kyushu. In particular, the clockwise gyre causes the entrainment of jack mackerel larvae into the waters off the west coast of Kyushu. Consecutive satellite thermal images help to elucidate the northward warm water intrusion from the Kuroshio front south‐west of Kyushu. Particle trajectories using sea surface current fields computed with the Maximum Cross Correlation (MCC) technique also reveal that the transport of jack mackerel larvae into the nursery ground off the west coast of Kyushu caused by the anti‐cyclonic gyre and the warm streamers are an important process for successful recruitment.