Spatial–Temporal Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Marine Fishery Eco-Efficiency in China: Evidence from Coastal Regions

Abstract

Marine fishery is an important part of China’s maritime power strategy. Improving the ecological efficiency of marine fishery is the inevitable way to achieve the sustainable development of fishery. Based on the perspective of industrial sustainable development, this study used the Super-SBM model to evaluate the ecological efficiency of marine fishery in 11 coastal provinces of China from 2011 to 2020. Combined with Malmquist index, Moran index and other methods, the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics were analyzed. On this basis, the Tobit panel model was used to explore the influencing factors of marine fishery eco-efficiency. The results show that: (1) From 2011 to 2020, the marine fishery eco-efficiency in the 10 coastal provinces and cities of China shows a clear trend of improvement, and the efficiency values in high-efficiency areas remain basically stable. The relative gap between efficient and inefficient regions remains significant. (2) From the perspective of spatial distribution characteristics, the ecological efficiency of marine fishery in coastal provinces and cities in China had no obvious spatial correlation, and showed a trend of cross-distribution between high-efficiency regions and low-efficiency regions. (3) The change of marine fishery eco-efficiency is the result of a variety of influencing factors. Fishery industrial structure, scientific and technological support levels and environmental regulation play a role in promoting the improvement of marine fishery eco-efficiency. Therefore, optimizing the structure of the fishery industry, improving environmental regulation and increasing investment in science and technology are all effective measures for local governments to improve the eco-efficiency of marine fisheries.