Fish Weir

Definition: A fish weir or fish trap is a step forward in fishing technology, used in North America (and other places in the world) for the past several thousand years. The oldest known fish weir in North America is associated with the Maritime Archaic Tradition of coastal Canada (ca 7500-3500 BC). Preservation of fish weirs is generally not very good, especially in channelized streams, so the invention may be earlier still.

In general, a fish weir is constructed by placing a row of stakes in the middle of a stream, in an estuary or near a coastline. Plant material is then wrapped around and between the stakes and the fish are herded into the impoundment area where they can be retrieved with some facility.

Sources

Bannerman, Nigel and Cecil Jones 1999 Fish-trap types: A component of the maritime cultural landscape. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 28(1):70-84.

Decima, Elena B and Dincauze, Dena F. 1992. 4000 years ago in the back bay of Boston: The Boylston Street Fish Weir revisited. 57th Annual Society for American Archaeology meetings.

Erickson, Clark 2000 An Artificial Landscape-Scale Fishery in the Bolivian Amazon. Nature 408:190-193.

Head, Lesley 1989 Using palaeoecology to date Aboriginal fish-traps at Lake Condah, Victoria. Archaeology in Oceania 24:110-115.

Johnston, R. B. and Ken Cassavoy 1978 The Fishweirs at Atherley Narrows, Ontario. American Antiquity 43(4):697-709.

Limp, W. F. and Van A. Reidhead 1979 An economic evaluation of the potential of fish utilization in riverine environments. American Antiquity 44(1):70-78.

McCoy, William J.Jr. 1980 Recollections of an early fish trap on the Holston River. Tennessee Anthropologist 5(2):179-184.

This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.

Also Known As: fish impoundment, tidal weir

Examples: Boylston Street Fish Weir, Massachusetts; Fair Lawn-Paterson Fish Weir, New Jersey.