International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol.15, No.6, 287-297 http://www.aquapublisher.com/index.php/ija 288 There is often a gap between ideals and reality. The challenges faced by the global fishery today can be said to be piling up layer upon layer. Overfishing, illegal operations, insufficient management capabilities, climate change and Marine pollution are all intertwined, causing the resources of many fishing grounds to continue to decline. Data shows that the proportion of global fisheries regarded as sustainable has dropped from about 90% in 1990 to 66% in 2017, and in some regions, ecosystem-level crises have even emerged. Climate change has made the distribution and yield of fish even more unpredictable, intensifying the uncertainty of fishery management (Yang et al., 2025). However, signs of change have already emerged. Countries around the world have begun to explore new management concepts, including basic management of ecosystems, climate-resilient management, fishery improvement projects (FIPs), community co-management, and performance evaluation systems, etc. The common point of these methods lies in emphasizing scientific basis, social participation and policy innovation. Meanwhile, the international community is also promoting the standardization and transparency of governance, expecting each country to formulate more suitable management strategies based on its own circumstances. The key to the future may not lie in "how to regulate more strictly", but rather in finding a dynamic balance between utilization and protection, making the fishery system more resilient and capable of moving forward steadily in the constantly changing Marine environment. 2 The Ecological Basis of Fishery Sustainability 2.1 Dynamics of marine ecosystems and biology of fish populations The Marine ecosystem is like a vast network that never stops, with various organisms interlinked and energy and matter constantly flowing and circulating. Fish play a significant role in this. Their population size and changes are not only influenced by the structure of the food web but also affected by environmental fluctuations and human fishing. The responses of different fish species to environmental changes vary significantly: fish species with fast reproduction and short life cycles can recover relatively quickly even if they are caught in large numbers. Fish that have a long lifespan and mature late are often more prone to being "overdrawn" and have difficulty recovering. Extreme events such as climate change, Marine heatwaves, and storms often lead to fish migration and fluctuations in production, thereby impacting the stability of fishery resources (Marshak and Link, 2024; Cyr et al., 2025). Therefore, rather than merely focusing on catch volume, it is better to have a deeper understanding of the interrelationship between ecosystem dynamics and fish population biology - this is the fundamental logic for achieving scientific management and long-term utilization. 2.2 The role of biodiversity in fishery productivity When discussing fishery output, people sometimes overlook a more fundamental factor: biodiversity. Biodiversity not only concerns the balance of ecosystems but also directly affects the "productive capacity" of the fishery industry. An ecosystem with species diversity is like a machine with a redundancy mechanism: even if one gear malfunctions, the others can still step in, thereby maintaining system stability (Lefcheck et al., 2021). Research has found that in areas with high biodiversity such as coral reefs and kelp forests, the biomass and sustained output of fish communities are both higher (Figure 1). On the contrary, once large fish species decline or some key species disappear, the function of the entire ecosystem will be compromised, and the catch will naturally decline accordingly. Rich ecological niches and complex food web structures enable more full utilization of resources and also make the system more resilient (Stanford-Clark et al., 2025). Therefore, protecting biodiversity is by no means an empty talk of ecological sentiment; rather, it is a practical issue concerning whether the fishing industry can be sustained in the long term and whether coastal communities can continue to rely on the sea for a living. 2.3 Analysis of the relationship between fishing intensity and ecological balance How many fish should be caught to be just right? This is an inescapable core issue in fishery management. Excessive fishing intensity can lead to a decline in fish populations, disorder of food webs, and possible imbalance of the ecosystem as a result. However, if properly controlled, the fishery can maintain its population near the maximum sustainable yield (MSY), achieving rational utilization of resources. The problem is that in
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