Designing an assessment tool for integrated evaluation of sustainable fisheries in China

Fisheries are social-ecological systems. Evaluating the sustainability of fisheries requires methods to measure performance from ecological, economic, social, and governance aspects. Whereas a number of multi-dimensional evaluation tools such as fishery performance indicators (FPIs) have been used for assessing fishery management systems, fishery management practices and data availability are likely to differ substantially among fisheries in different countries. This makes it at least somewhat problematic to precisely adapt this methodology to fisheries within a given country. This study constructed a practical tool to evaluate and compare fishery systems in China. On the basis of an established indicator library and the FPIs tool, indicators in the newly developed tool for comprehensive fisheries evaluation were selected according to the management objectives, data availability, and the authority of relevant indicators. The sustainability assessment tool for Chinese fisheries (SAT-fish) provides a three-tier hierarchical framework covering 60 indicators, of which 48 indicators were extracted from the FPIs tool and 12 indicators were associated with policy statements. Applicability and comprehensiveness of this tool in comparison with six other well-established frameworks were investigated. This tool offers a promising new method to assess the sustainability of fishery systems in China, with great potential to guide Chinese fisheries towards a higher level of sustainability.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42995-024-00251-z.