Modern fishermen see the life wisdom of the older generation of fishermen as outdated concepts that is not in line with the needs of the times, especially living fishery knowledge that integrates with the natural environment. As time passes, such life wisdom might be lost for good with no one to pass it on. In view of this, this study explored living fishery knowledge of Fenggui Village, Magong City, Penghu County with local knowledge as the core, such as the island environment, tides, waves, mountains, lights, seasons, fishing gears, fishing techniques, catch, organization, etc. upon which the residents’ livelihoods have risen from this fishery environment. The fishery perception and viewpoints must be put into practice by one in diachronism and synchronism. Through the exploratory research of island fishery culture, in one way, the agitating life relationship between Man and the marine environment was explored to construct knowledge about Penghu’s living fishery. Every segment of spatial-temporal memory and experience come from passing down through generations or a personal exploration process. After deepening, one’s understanding and use of the surrounding environment facilitate the creation of a philosophy being close to the sea and important survival skills. On the other hand, the focus lay in exploring the life experience of Fenggui Fishery, with local residents as the center of discussion, extending various environmental aspects, including how changes in natural environment affected the local residents’ life mindset, or what clues can be found from knowledge about living fishery based on Fenggui residents’ concept towards nature, time, and space, and other issues. The knowledge about living fishery was further explored to attempt to discuss and construct the outline of the Fenggui living fishery knowledge system through local knowledge, phenomenology, human geography, intangible cultural assets, and other theories: one involving an exploration of the relationship between Man and the fishery environment, and the other involving putting fishery knowledge into practice and introducing the preservation of intangible cultural assets.
The research adopted Penghu’s Fenggui Village as the example. Fenggui Village is a typical fishing village in Penghu whose fishery structure is manifested in the local way of life. Geographically located at the end tip of County Highway No. 201 in Penghu, a living environment near the sea is naturally related the residents’ livelihoods to the surrounding marine resources, resulting in the industry’s destiny to live by the sea. As technological civilization gradually overtakes the contemporary society, traditional knowledge is bound to be subject to impacts, including human skills, oral instructions, craftsmanship and learning models, value judgement, and so on, with varying degrees of impacts. Therefore, the formation of knowledge about Fenggui’s living fishery knowledge must be based on: the physical practice between Man and the environment and the interaction between the subject and the object, with learning as the basis and in turn leading to the creation of personal and others’ experience indices. The tradition of Fenggui’s living fishery knowledge is still retained in the middle-aged and elderly persons. The local spoken language includes the common names of fish species, common names of fishing techniques, handmade fishing gear, weather identification, etc., which are a continuation of existing traditional life. This study collected the cultural contents of Fenggui fishery‘s knowledge. Multi-faceted research approaches were adopted, including field investigations, participation in intertidal zone operations, investigations on community cultural resources, theory-based constructions, and other aspects. The qualitative research method was adopted, with social cultures, personal experiences, and dialogues in text as the directions for exploring Fenggui residents’ living fishery and related knowledge.
Therefore, the reasons that knowledge about Fenggui’s living fishery is worthy of registration as an intangible cultural asset are as follows: it has a long history of fishery development, a complete fishing village structure, many knowledge sources inherited from ancestors and life experiences passed down from generation to generation; the residents have knowledge, viewpoints and collective memories passed down through generations, forming Fenggui’s fishery knowledge and culture through development and transformation in different stages; Longline fishing, squid rig for trolling, and other fishing techniques are still operated based on traditional knowledge such as the currents and tides, weather identification, etc.; captains and crew organizations, boat groups made up of father and son, family, and friends can continue to pass on local fishery knowledge and put it into practice; the devout local beliefs, compliance with folk customs, and demonstration of other supernatural powers are said to be part of folk life. Putting the fishery environment to good uses and its positioning are expressed in various fishing techniques, sailing methods, and mountain range identification, all of which are important contents of the preservation of intangible cultural assets.
The research results deem that the knowledge about the living fishery in Fenggui Village has absolute preservation value in terms of traditional knowledge about intangible cultural assets and putting them into practice and the registration of folk customs, orally instructed traditions, and other categories. Fenggui has a long history of fishery development. The experience passing-on has been through at least three generations, from the Qing-led period, the Japanese Colonial Period, after the war, until this day. The context of the historical and traditional development passed down from generation to generation is explicitly evident. Longline fishing, squid rig for trolling, and other fishing techniques are a continuation of elders’ fishing knowledge and beliefs that each stage of development has its own knowledge molding and characteristics. The life concept of “fishing for a living for one day; fishing for life” further illustrates the sustainability and locality of living fishery knowledge. Fenggui Village’s case is said to be a precedent for Taiwan and Penghu’s promotion of intangible cultural asset preservation. In the future, it is suggested that the preservation and development of Fenggui Village’s living fishery move towards the use of technological design, the introduction of environmental education, the revitalization of cultural travel locally, the registration and designation of cultural asset preservation, collaboration on ecological conservation, and other aspects. The ultimate goal is to construct an island sustainable life learning center and an island ecological museum.