Chinese Name: 離島出走工作室
Established: 2019
Location: Penghu
Did You Know?
The use of stone fish weirs is an ancient method of fishing. In the shallow seashore such as the intertidal zone, stones are stacked into a wall, creating a trap for fish that uses the ebb and flow of the ocean to lure the fish in. Such weirs have been widely found in Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Samoa, and other places with rich marine cultures.
In 2016, Yang Fu-tzu (楊馥慈), who had left Penghu to study in Taiwan proper, took part in a Soil and Water Conservation Bureau project which saw her return home to Penghu. Interacting with residents of the small fishing village she was working in, she came into contact with the unique local stone weirs for the first time and immediately fell in love with them. She also came to realize that although her home is surrounded by the sea, she actually knew virtually nothing about the surrounding marine ecology. After this, she decided to transfer back to Penghu to learn marine knowledge and serve as a protector of the stone weirs. In 2019, Yang and her partner Jerry Tseng (曾宥輯) co-founded Isle.Travel Studio, focusing on keeping the Penghu stone fish weir tradition and culture alive and thriving.
The Penghu archipelago lies off the western coast of Taiwan proper and is made up of more than 100 individual islands. Its unique geographical conditions led to the creation of an unusually high density of weirs over the past 100 years, with more than 700 weirs surrounding the islands. In modern times, the development of fishery technology, and particularly new technologies such as power boats and freezers, saw the yields of the stone fish weirs fall behind in terms of productivity. Then, due to the complex property rights around the weirs and a decline in the number of people who knew how to maintain and restore them, the weir culture in Penghu gradually fell into decline.
Stone fish weirs are not only a source of money, but also a repository of social and cultural elements. A weir may belong to several people at once, thus necessitating coordination among everyone involved before restoration can begin. Isle.Travel co-founder Jerry Tseng says that by using aerial cameras, they found a stone weir that had been almost totally forgotten by the locals. There were no records of it, which meant there were no problems around who held rights to it, and as a result, this forgotten weir became the first one that Isle.Travel began repairing.
Seeing the results of this first effort, a number of weir owners began seeking the studio out, hoping they would help them repair their weirs. While the catches of the weirs aren’t great, says Tseng, the fact they are property that has been passed down through the generations means they have tremendous significance to the people of Penghu. Tseng also further notes that the problems faced by efforts to preserve the weirs are primarily ones involving the large amount of labor required and techniques that are almost lost.
Stone weirs can’t be built overnight, and so Isle.Travel also seeks the guidance of experts and craftsmen. To build weirs, one must be familiar with the waters in which they will sit. This involves spending several months, or even as long as a year, observing the conditions, scrutinizing clues between the tides day after day to settle on a good location and determine from which direction the fish will enter the heart-shaped stone weir. Repairing weirs, too, is no easy task. It requires a foundation in surveying, being able to assess the condition of the surrounding stones and the direction of the water flow, and the ability to estimate how much manpower will need to be scheduled. On top of this, not every day is going to be conducive to repair work. The most suitable time is the three days before and after the spring tide, meaning only about six to ten working days in a month are on the cards. Furthermore, understanding the stone involved, how to transport it to the sea, and how to stack it securely is also a complicated matter.
As they spent more time in contact with the community, Isle.Travel began to understand that there is a wide range of issues facing the stone fish weirs, and that many of them need to be solved urgently. Therefore, in 2018, they put forward the concept of a “multi-functional service platform,” including restoration engineering, training of young craftsmen, establishment of a stone weir database, design of marine education courses, and ecotourism planning in hopes of doing something to address the pressing need to keep the stone fish weir culture alive and vibrant.
They began using more accurate GPS and aerial photography technology to correct past survey results, creating an overview of the current situation of the weirs and their locations. Tseng adds that after investigation, it was discovered that the weirs were not always the way we imagine them. While people are generally more familiar with the heart-shaped weirs, there are also plenty in much odder shapes, and through aerial photography, we can see how well-structured all of them are and that they are all works of art of their own. Tseng also expects that the new technology combined with marketing techniques will make the weirs no longer just a government-ordered part of the local tourism promotion materials, but a more thoroughly incorporated element of the collective memory.
In recent years, the efforts of Isle.Travel have not only given the people of Penghu a renewed appreciation of their local stone fish weirs, but also attracted more domestic tourists to Penghu to study and repair the weirs, and even foreign scholars who hope to learn about them. Some Japanese scholars even invited her to share their restoration processes with Japanese fishing villages, says Yang Fu-tzu. It was only then that she realized that the weirs of Penghu are among the most numerous and most well-maintained in the world. Therefore, many articles on the information platform are accompanied by English and Japanese translations, helping further promote the weirs of Penghu to the international market and offering the world a glimpse of the research value of Taiwan’s stone fish weirs.
(Photo courtesy of Isle.Travel Studio)