Traditional fishing method uses fire to attract fish at peril

At Huanggang fishing port on Taiwan’s north coast, burning torches once lit up the coast every night. Fishermen used a chemical property of calcium carbide to light fires in the water and attract small fish. The process was a tradition that spanned decades. However, as technology slowly made fire fishing obsolete, the sun eventually set on this unique tradition. In the years that followed, a handful of fishermen sought to revive the technique. Let’s hear their story.

It’s evening at Huanggang Fishing Port in New Taipei’s Jinshan District, and a light breeze fills the air.

However, the fishers are too busy with work to enjoy this reprieve from the day’s heat.

Boat captain Lee Ko-tung and his crew prepare to head out to sea once the sun goes down. Among the things they prepare is one very special item.

These rock-shaped clumps of calcium carbide are referred to colloquially as electric rocks. Since Japanese colonial times fishers have used them to attract schools of fish.

Calcium carbide reacts with water to produce acetylene gas and calcium hydroxide, which ignites to produce a flame. Fishers use this property of the compound to light torches in the pitch-black darkness of the night to catch small fish such as sardines and anchovies.

Lee Ko-tung
Fire master
At the bottom of the sea, large fish eat smaller fish. The larger fish chase the smaller fish toward the coast. When the fish form a school, we can catch them.

When the calcium carbide ignites, it makes a popping noise. Fishers refer to this fishing method as fire fishing. When they fish using this method, they have a clear division of labor, and cooperate closely with each other.

Kuo Ching-lin
Cultural historian
On one boat there are at least seven fishers, and among them, the most important person is the fire master–the one who stands at the bow of the vessel holding the torch. Also very important is the person driving the boat. They have to be very familiar with the coastline, and after them is the person who casts the net. These three individuals are very important.

The fire master is also the boat captain, and whether to go out to sea on any given day, or which direction to sail toward, is up to him. Lee has decades of experience as a fire master. His most important task as such is to locate schools of fish.

Lee Ko-tung
Fire master
I lay there looking down into the water, my head lowered. When there are fish the water will be blue. They swim continuously alongside the boat. A large number of them, continuously swimming. They are just like fireflies.

Chang Cheng-liang
Professor
In earlier days of the Indigenous peoples, there was a subgroup of the Ketagalan people called the Basay who lived near Taiwan’s northern coast. There are records that say that the Basay used fire to catch fish like this, along the coast from Nanfang’ao up to Tamsui. In fact, the records say there were 200 to 300 boats in waters along the coast that engaged in fire fishing.

Lee Ko-tung
Fire master
When my grandfather fished back in the day it was very hard work. He used fire to catch fish, one torch after another. He couldn’t let the fire go out. Later on he used kerosene. He would have to work the kerosene with one hand while lighting the torch with the other. It wasn’t very easy, so later he switched to using the calcium carbide.

For generations, fire-fishing boats stretched along the sea like shining stars–a sight that Jinshan was famous for.

Kuo Ching-lin
Cultural historian
This fishing method was actually first recorded in a Qing-dynasty era text. During that era there were quite a lot of literati who visited Taiwan to explore, and they gave names to some of the areas on the island. Eight areas in what is now Jinshan District were named at that time, one of which was Huanggang Fishing Port.

Fire fishing is part of the coastal fisheries, and its season is from May to August or September. In the 1960s and 1970s, most fire fishing was done off the coast of Jinshan, and the practice brought great wealth to the district during that time.

Chien Kun
Jinshan resident
I’ve been a fisher since I was little. Back then it was all fire fishing–there were 40 or 50 boats. In those days Huanggang, was like a city that never sleeps. The port was filled with boats, and the whole area was bustling with activity.

Men would fish throughout the night, and then bring their catch to women at the port who would gut and blanch the fish.

Tsai Su-yeh
Jinshan resident
Early in the morning, around 3 or 4 a.m. we would be up blanching the fish. By the time we finished it would be daybreak. With the sun up we would put the fish out to dry. We’d first lay it on the ground and wash it, and then leave it there to dry. If th