Dynamic relationship between marine fisheries economic development, environmental protection and fisheries technological Progress—A case of coastal provinces in China

Abstract

With the deepening of economic globalization and regional economic integration, as well as the emergence of “black swan” events such as the novel coronavirus epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, marine fisheries is increasingly linked to national strategic interests and economic lifeblood. Under the new situation, it is necessary to explore the synergistic evolution of marine fisheries economic development, environmental protection and fisheries technological progress, so as to help the sustainable and healthy development of marine fisheries. Based on the panel data of 11 coastal provinces and cities in China, from 2006 to 2020, this study constructs an integrated framework of a marine fisheries economy–environment–technology system and utilizes methods such as entropy method, Tapio decoupling index, coupling coordination degree model, and panel vector autoregressive model to analyze its comprehensive development, collaborative evolution, and dynamic correlation mechanism. Results show the following: (1) The comprehensive development index of the fisheries economy and technology subsystems was generally on the rise, but that of the marine environment subsystem was on the decline and fluctuating. (2) The development of the marine fisheries economy–technology subsystem was relatively coordinated, but the decoupling of marine environment from fisheries economy and technology was relatively obvious. The three marine fisheries subsystems reached reluctant coordination, but most of the regions shifted from being driven by economy–environment coupling to leading by economy–technology coupling, which indicates that the deteriorating marine environment hindered the marine fisheries system from achieving high-level coordinated symbiosis. (3) The three marine fisheries subsystems possessed self-reinforcing mechanisms, but the positive effect was relatively limited in long-term development. Moreover, the marine fisheries environment subsystem has yet to achieve sustainable and benign interaction with the economy and technology subsystems. Therefore, it is urgent to take quality and efficiency improvement as the core, facilitating the leap of marine fisheries economy, adopt green environmental protection as the key, consolidating the bearing foundation of marine environment, and employ scientific innovation as the sail, effectively playing the leading role of fisheries technology.