Priority decision of risk management for Chinese fisheries by using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach

Abstract

This study aims to (1) identify risk types faced by the Chinese fisheries; and (2) give priority ranks to the risks and their sub-types for better management. For this purpose, data was collected from fishery researchers/experts working in Shandong, Fujian, Liaoning, and Guangdong provinces of China through questionnaire based survey. In total, 33 questionnaires were obtained among which only 25 questionnaires, consistency ratio (CR) value below than 0.1, were employed in this study. Data was statistically analyzed by using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Obtained results indicate that Chinese fisheries is facing five diverse risk types, viz., natural risk, ecological risk, market risk, technical risk, and management risk. The calculated rank and importance of these risks types are management risk (1 and 0.509), ecological risk (2 and 0.220), technical risk (3 and 0.131), natural risk (4 and 0.076), and market risk (5 and 0.063). On the other hand, overfishing is the biggest risk sub-type faced by Chinese fisheries followed by lack of knowledge and hazardous inorganics. Overall, 18 risk sub-types are identified in this study. The estimated rank and importance of top 3 risk sub-types are overfishing (1 and 0.239), lack of knowledge (2 and 0.169), and hazardous inorganics (3 and 0.130).