Fishing Weir - Types

Types

In North America, fishing weirs are constructed using wooden stakes woven together to create a barrier that traps fish while letting water pass through. The pattern of wooden stakes depends on the location and nature of the waters being fished.

In the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts, wooden stake remains of the Boylston Street Fishweir have been documented during excavations for subway tunnels and building foundations. The Boylston Street Fishweir was actually a series of fish weirs built and maintained near the tidal shoreline between 3,700 and 5,200 years ago.

Natives in Nova Scotia use weirs that stretch across the entire river to retain shad during their seasonal runs up the Shubenacadie, Nine Mile, and Stewiacke rivers, and use nets to scoop the trapped fish. Various weir patterns were used on tidal waters to retain a variety of different species, which are still used today. V-shaped weirs with circular formations to hold the fish during high tides are used on the Bay of Fundy to fish herring, which follow the flow of water. Similar V-shaped weirs are also used in British Columbia to corral salmon to the end of the "V" during the changing of the tides.

• Fishing weir used to trap eels on the Danish coast

• The Martinsville Fish Dam, Virginia, an historic Native American Indian fishing weir built with rocks

• Remains of an ancient stone fishing weir in the tidal Menai Strait in Wales.

• Fishing weir on the rapidly flowing Mogami River in Japan

• Fishing weirs using baskets at a river waterfall, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• Ancient Fishing Weir V shaped fishing weir at Countisbury Cove, Somerset