In recent years, there have been frequent jellyfish outbreaks in Chinese coastal waters, significantly impacting the structure, functionality, safety, and economy of nuclear power plant cooling water intake and nearby ecosystems. Therefore, this study focuses on jellyfish outbreaks in Chinese coastal waters, particularly near the Shandong Peninsula. By analyzing jellyfish abundance data, a Generalized Additive Model integrating environmental factors reveals that temperature and salinity greatly influence jellyfish density. The results show variations in jellyfish density among years, with higher densities in coastal areas. The model explains 42.2% of the variance, highlighting the positive correlation between temperature (20–26 °C) and jellyfish density, as well as the impact of salinity (27.5–29‰). Additionally, ocean currents play a significant role in nearshore jellyfish aggregation, with a correlation between ocean currents and site coordinates. This study aims to investigate the relationship between jellyfish blooms and environmental factors. The results obtained from the study provide data support for the prevention and control of blockages in nuclear power plant cooling systems, and provide a data basis for the implementation of monitoring measures in nuclear power plants.

Smart fisheries are an important way to promote the sustainable development of fisheries, and efficient and reliable marine communication systems are the key to realizing smart fisheries. As an emerging marine communication technology, the VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) has the advantages of a high data transmission rate, large communication capacity, and wide coverage, providing new opportunities for the transformation and upgrading of smart fisheries. This paper introduces the technical architecture and functions of the VDES, compares it with existing marine communication technologies, analyzes the key requirements of a smart fishery, and assesses how the VDES meets these requirements. The potential application scenarios of the VDES in smart fishery fields such as fishing vessel monitoring, fishery resource management, and maritime security are discussed. The challenges faced by the VDES in the application of smart fisheries, such as technology, policies and regulations, and construction cost layout, are analyzed, and its future development trend is prospected. Suggestions such as its integration with emerging technologies, the realization of global seamless coverage, and the strengthening of international cooperation and data sharing are proposed. This paper aims to provide theoretical guidance and scientific reference for the promotion and application of the VDES in smart fisheries.

Coastal fisheries are vital for food supply, employment, and social stability. However, overfishing is a common problem, often attributed to open access. Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries (TURFs) have gained popularity as a tool to improve the sustainability of coastal fisheries, but research on TURFs in China is limited. This paper examines the island reef fishery lease policy implemented in Shengsi County, Zhejiang Province, within the Ma’an Islands National Marine Special Reserve. The policy leases the use of island reefs to a collective, aiming to address overfishing and resource degradation by establishing fishing area boundaries and limiting the number of users and usage time. Technically, it is an application of TURFs, and it represents a shift from traditional fishing licenses to collective compliance. This experience has disrupted the existing top–down fishery governance structure and signifies a transition to a rights-based fishery management system in China. Through a comprehensive investigation and analysis of the policy’s implementation, this research identifies the factors contributing to its flaws. These include the inadequate provision of national and local government policies, insufficient support for policy implementation from fishery management authorities, and the limited involvement of fishermen’s organizations. To enhance coastal fishery management, we propose that the Chinese government should build upon existing foundations by clarifying fishing rights through central and local laws and policies. Additionally, there is a need to strengthen data monitoring of coastal fisheries, conduct multidisciplinary research to improve the allocation mechanism of fishing rights, adopt diverse fishery management approaches to enhance supervision capabilities, establish a collaborative governance mechanism, and foster coordination and cooperation between grassroots fishermen’s organizations and government departments.

China plays a significant role in the global fishing industry. The small-scale fisheries (SSFs) operating along its coast have made noteworthy and invaluable contributions in the areas of poverty alleviation, protein provision, social equity, and overall socioeconomic development. Coastal small-scale fishing management is a persistent challenge for all fishing nations, including China. In recent years, China has made significant strides in adopting scientific and refined approaches to fishery management in this sector. This paper provides an overview of the development of China’s coastal fishery management practices, including changes in policies, methods, and modes since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. To address these challenges, this research seeks to enhance the governance system of small-scale coastal fisheries by assessing values from three dimensions: society, economy, and ecology.

Macrobenthic seaweeds are key species in temperate and boreal nearshore rocky ecosystems, and their interspecific interactions profoundly affect the species composition, spatial distribution and dynamic succession of the community. This paper systematically reviews the mechanisms of interspecific competition and facilitative effects among macrobenthic seaweeds. We also examine their environmental regulation and impacts on community phase transitions. Competition mainly centers on three major resources: light, space and nutrients. It manifests as an asymmetric hierarchical structure, in which canopy-forming species exert a disproportionate repressive effect on lower algal layers through light competition. Facilitative effects are realized through several mechanisms. These include canopy shading to mitigate heat stress and water loss, physical structure building to create complex habitats, and nutrient retention with chemical microenvironment regulation. Moreover, the relative strengths of facilitation and competition shift systematically across environmental stress gradients. Multi-trophic level regulation further shapes community diversity maintenance mechanisms through the suppression of dominant species by vegetative predators and the cascading effect of top predators on vegetative predators. In the context of global change, physiological asymmetries driven by oceanic heat waves are tilting the competitive balance in favor of opportunistic turf algae. These algae form a lock-in state through the triple positive feedbacks: physical barriers, biogeochemical deterioration, and chemosensory exclusion. This significantly decreases the resilience of algal field recovery. Tropical coral-macroalgae phase transition is highly consistent with the degradation of temperate algal fields in terms of driving logic. They follow the law of coupling resource competition imbalance, downward regulatory relaxation, and positive feedback lock-up. This paper suggests several priorities for future research. Studies should focus on the nonlinear response of multifactor interaction, the quantitative correlation between key functional traits and community resilience, and the establishment of a cross-ecosystem comparison framework. These efforts will provide theoretical support for predicting and adaptively managing offshore ecosystems under global change.