LAUSR

Abstract Developing equitable quota allocation schemes can contribute to achieving long-term ecological and economic sustainability of a nation’s fishery resources. Taking the Bohai Sea as a case study, we explored the biological reasons for fishery conflicts using survey data from the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, and further developed a multi-criteria allocation approach from biological, social and economic aspects and investigated eight allocation scenarios based on the national fishery statistical data. Results showed that fishery conflicts in the Bohai Sea were mainly caused by large annual variations in fish abundance, some high abundance areas occurring near jurisdictional boundaries, and biologically limited fisheries which had become overfished. Allocation approaches with multiple weighted criteria were more stable and acceptable compared with those solely based on one aspect. Percentage shares in Liaoning Province, Hebei Province, Shandong Province, and Tianjin Municipality were 30.2 %, 21.0 %, 47.6 %, and 1.2 % respectively based on the application of an entropy method. Instead of base allocation schemes which rely solely on biological factors such as historical catch records, these results highlight the importance of incorporating socioeconomic factors into decisions about catch quota allocation.