Taiwan's Penghu islands are facing a sharp drop in young people, and the warning sign is coming from the county's own maritime school — bad news for the fishing and shipping industry that Penghu built its identity on.

• The county's marine and fisheries high school enrolled just 152 first-year students this year across its entire freshman class.
• Traditional sea trades are nearly gone: fewer than 30 students signed up for fishing, aquaculture, shipping management, navigation, and seafood processing combined.
• Students are instead choosing engineering, food service, IT, electronics, and auto repair — the trades that travel anywhere.
• The warning comes as a record number of candidates run for Penghu county chief, most campaigning on cash handouts and welfare payments rather than fixing the population problem.
• A retired teacher at the school, Chen Ming-tsung, called the trend an iceberg the islands cannot steer around, and said the local industry chain is close to breaking.

Outlook: Unless the coming election produces a candidate with a real plan for births, aging, and jobs, Penghu's maritime economy will keep thinning out as each smaller class graduates.