Foreword to the special issue “sustainable utilization of coastal fisheries resources”: data-driven assessment of coastal fisheries resources

Coastal fisheries resources serve as a critical foundation for high-quality animal protein supply and the blue economy in China. Under the combined pressures of intensified human activities and climate change, these resources are facing challenges including impaired recruitment capacity, increased population fluctuations, and heightened community structure changes, underscoring an urgent need for more accurate assessments to support science-based management. This Special Issue focuses on the core requirements for sustainable utilization of coastal fisheries resources, by systematically collecting research frontiers across the key processes of “monitoring-assessment-management”. Conceptually, they expand from single-stock dynamics to integrated analyses of community structure and habitat processes, thereby promoting a shift in management objectives toward an ecosystem perspective. Technically, they highlight the development of multi-source, multi-dimensional, and low-disturbance monitoring systems, and advocates reducing ecological impacts through improved understanding of fishing-gear selectivity and optimization of operational practices. For decision-making, in response to growing demands for data-driven governance, they introduce models and algorithms that strengthen uncertainty analysis and facilitate strategy evaluation, providing methodological support for risk-constrained, fine-scale, and adaptive management.