Fish Weirs Research Articles

From Fish Weir to Waterfall

foothills (Snoqualmie Tribe vs. U.S. 1960:5). This wooded valley was dotted with lakes and prairies that abounded in wild game, fish, marine life, berries, and bulbs. Eighteen villages containing 96 reported longhouses were the home of 4,000 to 5,000 Snoqualmie (Martin 1933:178,187). Snoqualmie Falls, with its spectacular 268-foot waterfall, provided a natural boundary which coincidentally divided the tribe into two ecological zones: wooded riverine and open prairie. Tradition holds that a former fish weir at the present site of the Falls was mysteriously transformed into a towering waterfall on account of personal greed. Corporate development now threatens to bury the Falls as a local electric company seeks to divert additional water for hydroelectric power. Conflict is believed to have created the Falls and now threatens to destroy it. This study notes the significance of Snoqualmie Falls in the mythological, traditional, and contemporary life of the Snoqualmie Indians. Mythologically, the Falls provided the setting for the transformation of the chaos of the primeval world into order. Traditionally, the Falls have been a symbolic boundary between the Lower and Upper Snoqualmie. The Falls provides a place for contemporary Snoqualmie to gather to pray, to meditate, to worship, and to renew their contact with their ancestors and spiritual powers. This study examines the historic and contemporary significance of Snoqualmie Falls to two groups of Snoqualmie Indians-those living within the traditional twenty-five mile radius from the Falls and those who live elsewhere in the state of Washington. Section one reviews the ethnological literature on the Snoqualmie Tribe and relates those data to other literature regarding ethnicity and migration. Section two describes the importance of the Falls in traditional Snoqualmie society. Section three explains the perceived importance of the Falls to the contemporary Snoqualmie Tribe. Section four summarizes the present conflict with the Puget Sound Power and Light Company over the use of the water at the Falls.

Hydraulics of culvert fishways V: Alberta fish weirs and baffles

This paper presents the results of a laboratory study of the hydraulic performance of fish weirs and fish baffles used by Alberta Transportation for improving the fish-passing capacity of culverts. It was found that if the longitudinal spacing of the weirs is limited to 0.6 and 1.2 times the diameter of the culvert, their performance is comparable to that of the corresponding weir and slotted-weir baffle systems, with regard to the depth of pool between the baffles as well as the barrier velocity. On the other hand, the fish baffles did not perform as well as the fish weirs under the conditions tested. Key words: culverts, fishways, baffles, turbulent flow, hydraulics, open-channel flow.

The Antiquity of Tlingit Settlement on Admiralty Island, Southeast Alaska

A series of 29 radiocarbon dates from 11 sites on Admiralty Island span the last 3,200 calendar years. Although our research corroborates many of the results of de Laguna's (1960) earlier work in the area, we find the Tlingit settlement pattern to be at least 1,600 years old, significantly older than previously believed. Dating of a wooden fish weir demonstrates that mass harvesting of salmon has an antiquity of at least 3,000 years.

THE SEVERN NAVIGATION IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: LONG-DISTANCE TRADE OF SHREWSBURY BOATS

Before the building of the national railway network in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, moving goods by water was cheaper, and frequently quicker and safer than overland carriage. England's rivers were therefore of major importance in the conduct and development of internal trade in the early modern period, but their contribution was limited by a number of factors both natural and man-made. Most waterways were too short or too shallow to be used by boats of a commercial size; they ran at an angle to the most direct route between trading centres; or they were controlled by competing interests for whom water was a source of power not a means of transport. The Severn, however. in spite of numerous shoals, sandbanks and fish weirs, was navigable for a distance of over 120 miles from its estuary to Pool Quay in mid Wales. It provided a direct connection between the port of Bristol and a set of interconnected economic subregions producing a diverse range of agricultural and industrial surpluses which stretched from south Lancashire to the Forest of Dean in one direction and from Birmingham to the Plynlimon range in the other. Also, unlike many other English and continental rivers the Severn was largely free from tolls, but not totally so. To help pay for the upkeep of their quays and bridges, the corporations of Worcester and Gloucester fined boats passing up and down river. This right was vigorously defended in the Exchequer Court on several occasions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The impact of these tolls on the competitiveness of the river as a system of transport cannot at present be assessed, but they failed to prevent the Severn becoming one of the major arteries of seventeenth-century Europe, second only to the Meuse in the volume of traffic it carried, ‘indispensable to the economy of the west of England’ and a factor essential to the development of the metal-using industries of Birmingham and the Black Country.

Fish Weirs of the River Severn

AbstractFishing with traps and weirs on both tidal estuaries and inland rivers of Wales has already been discussed in this journal, and therefore it is appropriate to report on similar structures which once existed nearby along the middle reaches of the River Severn in England.Late nineteenth-century illustrations and descriptions of the last surviving weirs at Montford, Fitz, and Preston near Shrewsbury (Figs. 1, 2, 3) give some idea of the typical construction. Each consisted of a wattle fence, supported by timber braces and piles, running across the river to form one or more V-shaped funnels pointing downstream. At the apex of each funnel stood a ‘doorway’ about 1.25 m wide, across which was held a bag-like net, controlled from a catwalk above with long poles, designed to catch eels migrating downstream.

Fencing Material and Methods for Effectively Trapping and Holding Pink Salmon

Abstract A new polyethylene fencing material is useful for the construction of fish weirs, traps, and holding pens. Plastic trash containers can be easily modified to securely hold live fish for relatively long periods without harm. These inexpensive materials were used effectively in studies of pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) in a small Ontario stream and may warrant use in studies of other species.

Fish Weirs and Traps

AbstractUndoubtedly the trapping offish is one of the oldest methods of fishing known to man and throughott the country, in rivers and along the coast, may be seen the remains of stone or wattle weirs, many of them erected centuries ago for the capture of salmon and other fish. In Wales the widespread occurrence of the word gored as well as other names associated with the artificial damming of the flow of water, give some indication of the importance of weirs in the economic history of rural Wales. The two most common names for weirs are argae and cored. Argae does not always refer to fishing weirs for it could refer to a weir built in association with a mill, but the word cored on the other hand refers invariably to fishing weirs, especially those constructed of plaited withies. The Welsh word for a pool specifically named for fishing is pysgodlyn (pysgod = fish + llyn = pool) and there is evidence to suggest that pools of this type were commonplace in the Middle Ages, especially in association with the ...

Photoarchaeological Analysis of Potomac River Fish Traps

AbstractAerial techniques have been proven effective for archaeological reconnaissance in several parts of the world.This paper describes photoarchaeological techniques which were used in a survey of a section of the Potomac River, near Washington, D.C. Thirty-six stone structures and one major Indian village site were discovered. The stone structures were primarily stone fish traps and fish weirs. One of the structures was found to be a navigation weir, constructed by the Potowmack Company, founded by George Washington in his efforts to open up the American "Western Frontier," regions in Maryland and Pennsylvania.Physical descriptions and locations of the structures are listed on the following pages, together with a comparative analysis of the structures. A recommendation is made for a site designation system which strengthens the standard Smithsonian system by adding Universal Transverse Mercator coordinates to them, thus simplifying location designation.

Examples of the Use of Two-Way Fish Weirs in Michigan

Abstract Descriptions and reasons for the installation and operation of the most important types of two-way fish weirs used in Michigan are presented, with a summary of the results obtained and the conclusions reached as a result of the operations. Five weirs are in operation at the present time at the Hunt Creek Fisheries Experiment Station. Four of the weirs (one of a self-cleaning rotary type) installed near the mouths of tributaries are used to determine the movements of native and planted fish between the tributaries and the main stream, and the fifth weir was installed at the outlet of East Fish Lake to block the re-entry of undesirable species into the lake. During 1943, a total of 1,161 brook trout (fingerlings and fish approaching legal size) moving downstream and 292 moving upstream were captured in these weirs. The contribution by tributaries to the main stream is evident. The Muskegon River weir was installed just below Houghton Lake for the purpose of determining the extent of the migration o...

Fishing Gear

THE third edition of “An Account of the Fishing Gear of England and Wales” (H.M. Stationery Office. 6s. net), has recently been issued, since the first publication in 1923, a fact which bears full witness to its value. The subject is a vast one, for Mr. Davis's account ranges from the single hook hand-line to the modern otter trawl, from the whelk-pot to the fish weir nearly a quarter of a mile long. The most important modern fishing gearsotter trawl and drift netare dealt with in detail, and the methods of shooting, fishing and hauling clearly explained. In this connexion it may be mentioned that many east coast drifters now shoot mackerel-nets forward, rather than over the stern. There is a section on the Danish plaice seine, and Mr. C. F. Hickling has rewritten the account of the Vigneron-Dahl trawl. Many of the instruments of the inshore fisherman described are now disused, or obsolescent, so that parts of the account are chiefly of historic interest. It is interesting to see how similar types of net have been evolved by fishermen on different parts of the coast, and how one type of net grades into another. The author points out that the Saltash tuck-seine is practically a trawl, and the Beer ‘fly-backed otter trawl’ a seine. The braiding and setting of nets and their preservation is dealt with. Indeed, the use of Mr. Davis's paper would make clear any reference to the methods of fishing around the British coasts, or the description of the shape and con struction of any net.