Abstract: The rapid development of cage culture has brought high pressure to the marine ecological environment in recent years. Although the environmental quality of cage culture area has been analysed and evaluated at different aspects by scholars, there is lack of universally accepted evaluation criterias and methods, and integrated assessment in these researches. In this study, by using analytic hierarchy process(AHP), a comprehensive indicator system for environmental quality evaluation of cage culture area was constructed from two aspects: the environmental suitability, the quality and safety of aquatic products. Based on the historical and current monitoring data of cage culture area in the Xihu Bay, Ningbo City, along with related literatures, the evaluating indicators were selected, and the evaluation criterias were determined. Combined with the index evaluation, these indicators were applied to evaluate the environmental quality of cage culture area in the Xihu Bay. The evaluation results show that the comprehensive quality of the cage culture area in the Xihu Bay in 2011 was rated as ‘comparatively good’, and the main risks identified were eutrophication and the heavy metal pollution in aquatic products.

Key words: cage culture, integrated evaluation, AHP, index evaluation, quality security of aquatic products