Should we eat seafood if it hurt marine ecology? In fact, there is a term to describe the decline in marine ecology due to fishery, “fully exploited” or “overexploited”. And this term does not result from thousands of years of human inshore fishing but from the massive fishing since the 1950s. In 2014, 77% of fish stocks are completely depleted. It further made a quarter of fisheries in the world collapse. Although 77% of fish has been depleted, much of it does not use properly while 27 million tons of fish is wasted every year. However, seafood provides essential nutrients that people need. So how can we avoid waste and overexploited while providing enough seafood for our diet? Taiwanese ancient fishing methods- “Beach Seine” can answer the question. 

Beach Seine is Taiwan's most primitive coastal fishing technique since the Qing dynasty.  During the activity, the fishermen on the boat cast the nets into the sea while the boat ships around the coast. Later, people on the shore pulled the nets ashore under the command of  fishermen. As the nets were pulled ashore, the fish around it is also caught and landed. After all, people can then share the fish together. 

This small-scale fishing method can be recognized as a kind of sustainable fishery. Because it only acts around the shore, which means the amount of catch is controllable. Furthermore, the mesh fishing net used in Beach Seine is wider, which allows immature fish and shrimps to escape, leaving mature and edible catch. It can slow down the depletion of fisheries. However, in recent years, with the mechanization of fishing boats and the prevalence of aquaculture, Beach Seine almost disappears because of its small amount of catch and slow efficiency. But in the aspect of sustainable development and cultural preservation, inheriting Beach Seine is important. Therefore, many fishermen have cooperated with local governments to promote this type of fishing method. It is hoped that such promotion will make more fishermen return to the original and sustainable fishery and slow down  overexploited.