Vagarious Custom for fishermen in My Hometown---The Taboo of Eating Fish

You shouldn't turn over the body of fish. As to cook a fish, you can only remove the viscus unable to eat to keep the whole shape of the fish for all kinds of fish except hairtail or eel which has a long body.

When eating the fish, usually, the host will first direct with his chopsticks to the fish to eat for the guest, and let the guest take the first bite to show his gracious hospitality. When one side of the fish is eaten up, remember, neither the host nor the guest can turn the fish over. The host will teach you how to eat without turning it over. In addition, you should not say "turn it over", either. Because "turn it over" means "turn the ship over". That's ominous for a fisherman.

Why "turn the fish over" means "turn the ship over"? In ancient Chinese, fish means dragon, someone called dragonfish. And ship means wooden dragon(you can often see dragon boat competition in Chinese traditional festival). So fish and ship have some relationship for fishermen.

Oh, that's just a custom for fisherman family. When my families are eating a fish, we don't care.