Measurement and Evolution of High-quality Development Level of Marine Fishery in China

High-quality development of marine fisheries provides an important advantage for China to build itself into a maritime power and implement the Blue Granary Plan effectively. Based on the concepts of 'new development', 'food security', and the six dimensions of 'openness, innovation, coordination, green, sharing, and security', in this study, we established an evaluation index system for the high-quality development of China's marine fishery sector. We applied the entropy method to evaluate the high-quality development level of China's marine fishery sector from 2000 to 2016 and explored its spatial and temporal evolution rules. Our results indicated that: 1) from 2000 to 2016, China's marine fishery sector was in the primary stage of high-quality development; 2) spatially, the high-quality development of marine fisheries showed an upward trend in all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in the country (not including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China), and with time, the distribution pattern changed from single to multi-polarization; 3) temporally, the development level of high-quality marine fisheries fluctuated during the study period. From 2000 to 2010, the growth rate in openness was relatively slow, but after 2010, it increased rapidly. Notably, innovation is the driving force for high-quality development. The green and security factors provide a solid guarantee for high-quality development. In the high-quality development of a region, economic development is better coordinated, and the distribution of benefits is more inclusive. This study provides a theoretical basis to formulate effective marine fishery policies for the high-quality development of the marine fishery sector in China. Exploring the high-quality development and evolution process of marine fishery is conducive to promoting the sustainable development of marine fishery industry, ensuring marine fishery food security, and alleviating global food crisis.