Haizhou Bay is an important spawning, nursery, and feeding ground for many commercially important fishery species. In recent years, many commercial fish populations have declined in abundance because of overfishing, climate change, environmental pollution, and multiple other factors. plays an important role in the food web of the Haizhou Bay ecosystem. Thus, management of a an understanding of the relevant environmental factors. To determine spatio-temporal variation in the distribution and abundance of , bottom trawl surveys were conducted in March, May, July, September, and December 2011 in Haizhou Bay. The relationships between patterns of distribution and environmental factors were analyzed using generalized additive models (GAM). Abundance of exhibited distinct seasonal and spatial variation, with abundance highest in July and lowest in September. was primarily distributed in the northeastern part of Haizhou Bay, which is the cold center of the southwestern Yellow Sea, suggesting a strong influence of the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass on distribution patterns. GAM analysis also showed that month, depth, and distance from shore significantly influenced the distribution, where abundance increased with depth and distance from shore. The abundance of was highest in the waters 14–36 m deep and roughly 70 km from the coast, which may relate to the reproductive migration of