ABSTRACT
Many studies concerning the early life history of Pacific bluefin tuna Thunnus orientalis have been conducted since the 1950s in Japan. Generally, studies of the early life history of marine fishes are composed of two approaches; field surveys and rearing experiments. At the beginning, the studies conducted for the early life history of Pacific bluefin tuna were the former. From the 1950s to the 1980s, large scale surveys of field sampling of the larvae were conducted around the spawning grounds formed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. A lot of information about the species identification and the distribution of the larvae were accumulated through these surveys. Thereafter, in the 2000s studies concerning the growth and development of larvae and survival mechanisms in relation to those have been conducted using various analysis methods.
