**1. Introduction**

Spearfishing with a harpoon is an ancient skill that can be traced back to more than 5000 years ago [1] (p. 6). Among the Amis people, one of Taiwan's indigenous peoples, the earliest documentation of harpoon spearfishing was in 1803; it was described by Japanese sailors who accidentally drifted to Cawi' village on the east coast of Taiwan and stayed there for four years [2] (p. 24). It is difficult to trace the earliest freediving spearfishing among Amis people, but it is possible that it started during the Japanese colonial period, when rubber and glass were introduced into Amis areas. In the Amis language, the spearfishing gun is called a pacin or cinko, which originates from the Japanese word pacinko, which means slingshot [3] (p. 4).

For the Amis people on the east coast of Taiwan, freediving spearfishing is not only a means of subsistence but is related to their society and culture. Furthermore, Amis freediving spearfishing requires complex knowledge of the nearshore sea, including the currents, fish species, marine landscapes, and related stories, which, together, can be regarded as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). The local marine TEK of the Amis freediving spearfishers regards the interactions between local Amis society and the sea, which is the foundation of the social–ecological system of indigenous resilience. In other words, the relationship between the local Amis society and the sea is, to a certain extent, interdependent, and problems on either side will also affect the other. Hence, in terms of the Amis spearfishing men's TEK about the local nearshore sea and coast, it can be a critical resource for local marine management.

However, the Taiwanese government treats spearfishing guns as weapons, and each spearfishing gun must be registered in the local police system. For this reason, Amis spearfishing men usually go

spearfishing in a low-key manner in order to avoid law enforcement by the coast guards. However, neither the regulations nor the coast guards are sufficient to enforce the reef-fishing regulations in Taiwan. Therefore, the Fishery Agency of Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, introduced a preliminary notice to commence a period of public comment for drafting "Regulations of Spear Gun on Harvesting Aquatic Animals in No-take Zones" in 2017 to prohibit spearfishing based on the aim of protecting the reef ecosystem. Although the regulation allows indigenous peoples to go spearfishing according to indigenous customs in the area, the regulation is still controversial and a cause of debate. Firstly, those indigenous people living outside the indigenous jurisdictions will not be allowed to go spearfishing. Secondly, some Han Taiwanese think it is unfair that only indigenous peoples benefit from spearfishing, which could potentially cause ethnic conflict between indigenous people and the Han Taiwanese. Finally, it is not logical for the Fishery Agency to ban spearfishing based on the discourse of protecting the reef ecosystem, when it excludes the reef ecosystems from indigenous areas. In sum, the Fishery Agency does not have sufficient evidence proving that spearfishing could cause damage to the reef ecosystem. It is, therefore, argued that they do not enforce rational regulations on marine-resource conservation.

It is bound to fail with a top-down (government-controlled) strategy according to the draft regulation as above; one of the critical issues is the neglect of local TEK and the management of local natural resources, accordingly, by local communities. In terms of community-based natural-resource management (CBNRM), especially in indigenous areas, not only the TEK holders, as the local experts, but also the autonomy of indigenous groups is one of the key points for managing the natural resource. In this paper, I argue that local marine TEK among Amis spearfishing men can be the foundation for local marine conservation, following the concept of community-based natural-resource management (CBNRM) that is based on the sovereignty of the indigenous groups and transforming it into a co-management project between the local Amis community and the government.
