Recent changes in the coastal sea surface temperatures (SST) in Korea are studied by time series analysis of daily SST data during the last 60 years (1936-1995) at 18 coastal observation stations of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute. The climate of coastal SST in Korea are rapidly changing in recent years. General trends of coast SST changes in Korea are as follows. The annual averages of SST are increasing. The annual ranges of SST variation are decreasing. The winter SST are increasing while the summer SST have a decreasing tendency. Climatic changes in coastal SST in recent 30 years (1965-1995) are more pronounced than those in the last 60 years (1936-1995). The observed trend of coast SST implies that the climate in Korea shows a tendency to shift from temperate zone to subtropical zone.

Reproductive effort and spawning frequency of the two palaemonid prawns, Exopalaemon modestus and Palaemon gravieri, were investigated. In both embryos of the two species, egg size was larger in E. modestus than in P. gravien but for a given size, number of eggs (EN) was fewer in E. modestus. The statistical results revealed that there were significant differences in egg size and EN between the two species. E. modestus living in freshwater environments had larger and fewer offspring than P. gravieri inhabiting marine environments. These findings are consistent with predictions from r- and K-selections models. Reproductive effort (RE) also was higher in E. modestus, suggesting the possibility for E. modestus to invest larger amount of energy per individual offspring. In the two prawns the ovarian dry weight of females with eyed eggs was significantly higher than those with non-eyed eggs. This indicates that the ovarian maturation occurs during the period between the two embryonic stages, suggesting females being potentially of continuous breeding within a single reproductive period. In the both species brood loss did not occur during the incubation period.

A protease purified from hepatopancreas of shrimp, Penaeus japonicus, had maximum activity at $70^{\circ}C$ and in neutral and alkaline pH ranges. Specific activity at optimum reaction condition of the protease was estimated to be approximately 12 U/mg/min. The protease was stable in neutral and alkaline pH ranges and activity was retained after heat treatment at $50^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. Apparent $K_m$ and $V_{max}$ value against casein substrate were estimated to be $0.29\%$ and $7.8see^{-1}$, respectively, and those against N-CBZ-L-tyrosine p-nitropheny1 ester (CBZ­Tyr-NE) were 0.38 mM and $2,400 see^{-1}$, respectively. The N-termina1 sequence of the protease showed high homology to the trypsin from same species and the proteases from shrimp. Myosin heavy chain (MHC) from shrimp tail meat was the most susceptible to the protease and actin/tropomyosin were degraded progressively during 4 hr incubation, but to a lesser degree than MHC.

Tyrosinase inhibitory activities of 14 kinds of seaweed, Ecklonia stolonifera, Ecklonia cava, Undaria pinnatiflda, Laminaria japonica, Sargassum fulvellum, Sargassum miyabei, Sargassum thunbergii, Porphyra yezoensis, Gracilaria verrucosa, Carpopeltis affinis, Pachymeniopsis elliptica, Gelidium amansii, Codium fragile and Ulva pertusa were determined using commercially available mushroom tyrosinase in an in vitro assay system. The $1\%$ (w/v) methanol extract from E. stolonifera showed the highest tyrosinase inhibitory activity of $79.0\%$, electron donating activity of $79.0\%$ and total phenol content of 3.75 mg/100g. Ethyl acetate-methanol-water (7 : 2 : 0.2, v/v) fraction $(0.5\%,\;w/v)$ isolated from the methanol extract showed tyrosinase inhibitory activity of $75.9 \%$, electron donating activity of $88.1 \%$ and total phenol content of 4.38 mg/100g. Tyrosinase inhibitory activity was closely associated with total phenol content (R = 0.99) and electron donating activity (R=0.99). Maximum absorption wavelength of the fraction was 218nm and that of phenolic compounds showed about a range from 210 to 220nm. The inhibition mode of the fraction was noncompetitive inhibition.

To investigate pre-salting conditions in the preparation of salted anchovy from large anchovy, anchovy were salted with various salt concentration and stored at $5^{\circ}C$ and $20^{\circ}C$ for 10 days. Moisture content decreased with the increase of salt and the salinity increased in proportion to salt concentration at $20^{\circ}C$. Total nitrogen decreased slightly as the increase of salt concentration during pre-salting at $20^{\circ}C$. The nitrogenous components such as amino nitrogen and extractable nitrogen were invariable or decreased until 7 days in salt concentration over $25\%$ during pre-salting at $5^{\circ}C$. These results imply that soluble nitrogen with moisture run out of anchovy body in high salt concentration and the hydrolysis was inhibited by salt over $25\%$ at $5^{\circ}C$. VBN content were constant in salt concentration over $25\%$ until 7 days, regardless of curing temperature. The POV were under the influence of salt concentration and temperatures. We concluded that the optimal condition for preparation of salted anchovy were pre-salting with salt over $25\%$ at $5^{\circ}C$ for 7 days.

Light and electron microscopical characteristics of Perkinsus sp. parasitizing in Manila clam, Ruditapes philippinarum, in Korea were investigated. Trophozoite within the tissue was spherical or ovoid and ranged $2.5-10.5\mu m$ $(mean = 6.2\mu m)$ in diameter. Trophozoite had a nucleus with a prominent nucleolus and a large cytoplasmic vacuole within the cytoplasm. Single trophozoite was phagocytozed by host hemocyte and cluster cells were encapusulated by hemocytes aggregation within the host tissues. Hypnospores incubated in thioglycollate medium (FTM) for 1 to 15 days were also spherical or ovoid and ranged $10-132\mu m$ $(mean\pm S.D.\;:\;44.25\pm 7.91\mu m)$ in diameter. Zoospores were spherical or ovoid, had a nucleus and two flagella. Zoospores contained apical complex, which consisted of conoid, subpellicular microtubules, rhoptries and rectilinear micronemes.

The marine actinomycetes are very interesting microorganisms for finding of new antibiotics, because they are inhabited in marine environmental conditions, such as salinity, organic material and low concentration of nutrient components that are differ from those of land. In this study, the actinomycetes producing antibiotics from sea waters and bottom deposit samples collected at east coast of Korea were investigated to invent new antibiotics. Nine actinomycetes strains having the antimicrobial activity of 431 actinomycetes were selected from sea waters and bottom deposit samples. Among the 9 strains, the strain having the highest antimicrobial activity was classified to Streptomyces sp. and named Streptomyces sp. NS 13239.

In previous study, marine actinomycetes producing the antibiotics were investigated to invent new antibiotics from east coast of Korea. The optimum growth conditions of Streptomyces sp. NS 13239 were $28^{\circ}C$, pH 7.0 and $3\%$ of NaCl concentration in various media. Streptomyces sp. NS 13239 showed strong antimicrobial activity against gram-positive bacteria, specially Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), but just weak antimicrobial activity against yeasts and mold. On the other hand, it did not show antimicrobial activity against gram-negative bacteria. The optimum conditions for producing antibiotics were almost consistent with optimum growth conditions except carbon source and nitrogen source.

Fabrea salina living at salt pond is an interesting ciliate in the research of photobiology and live food for aquaculture. This study was carried out to understand the natural habitat of F. salina at salt pond, which would be a basic biological knowledge for the indoor mass culture of this ciliate. In this research, the water quality as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll-a was examined with the population density of the ciliate at salt pond. The highest population density of F. salina occurred at 109 ppt and $31^{\circ}C$with 2,390 inds./L in August, and the distribution of the ciliate was positively correlated with salinity, temperature, and chlorophyll­a. Even though F. salina is a very euryharine ciliate, it did not occur at the salinity below 47 ppt in this study. Its reason is able to be explained with the occurrence of many predators as small fish and food competitors as zooplankton living at low salinity of salt pont. While F. salina occurred with Anemia at the same habitat using the same food source, the optimum salinity for the ciliate was a little higher than that of Anemia, and the optimum temperature for the former was a little lower than that of the later. This should be a reason for that these two species have different ecological nich at the same habitat using the same food source.

Trypanosoma sp. (Sarcomastigophora: Kinetoplastida) was found in the blood of the Korean catfish, Silurus asotus, for the first time in Korea. The morphological characteristics of Trypanosoma sp. in the present study were similar with those of T. carassii, T. tincae and T. danilewskyi. However, the free flagellum length of Trypanosoma sp. was obviously shorter than that of those species. The species identification was reserved until elucidating the pleomor-phism according to the phase of infection and the cross infectivity among fish species.