Based on the investigation of fishery resources and eco-environment in the Beibu Gulf of northern South China Sea from October 1997 to May 1999, and with EwE software, a mass-balance ecopath model of Beibu Gulf ecosystem was constructed, which consisted of 16 functional groups (boxes) including marine mammals and seabirds, each representing the organisms with similar roles in the food web, and covered the main trophic flow in Beibu Gulf ecosystem. The food web in Beibu Gulf ecosystem was dominated by detrital path, and benthic invertebrate played a significant role in transferring energy from detritus to higher trophic levels. Phytoplankton was the primary producer, and the fractional trophic levels ranged from 1.00 to 4.04, with marine mammals occupying the highest trophic level. By using network analysis, the system network was mapped into a linear food chain, and six discrete trophic levels were found, with a mean transfer efficiency of 12.3% from detritus, and 12.2% from primary producer within the ecosystem. The biomass density of commercially utilized species estimated by the model was 8.7 t x km(-2), and the bioproduction only accounted for 1.81% of the net primary production, which indicated that the system was still in developing status and instable.