Evaluation of on competitiveness of China’s provincial recreational fisheries and our suggestions

The development of leisure fisheries is an important part of promoting the construction of modern fisheries, and also an important measure to implement the strategy of rural revitalization and to build a strong marine economy. Considering the blank of the current research on the evaluation of the competitiveness of Chinese provincial recreational fisheries, the existing evaluation methods cannot take into account both the ambiguity and randomness of indicators. This study introduced the concept of competitiveness and the normal cloud model method, and evaluated the competitiveness of 30 provinces (except Tibet) of China's provincial-level administrative units for leisure fishery competitiveness by constructing a Chinese provincial leisure fishery competitiveness evaluation index system. The results showed: (1) The overall level of competitiveness of China’s provincial recreational fisheries is not high and the development is uneven. Two thirds of the provincial competitiveness results is in the level Ⅰ (weak) state, lacking the competitiveness of level Ⅳ (relatively strong) provinces; (2) Water resources area per capita, market distance index of source area and market size are common shortcomings of the competitiveness in most provincial units, and the total retail sales of social consumer goods and transportation accessibility indicators are generally highly competitive; (3) Level Ⅰ and Ⅲ provincial competitiveness results have less volatility, level Ⅱ provincial competitiveness results have greater volatility, and level Ⅴ provincial competitiveness results have the most stable results. This study can provide reference for enriching leisure fishery evaluation methods and making industrial development decisions.