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Seining the Weir:
(Step three)

Drying up the herring. This is when you draw the herring up closer to the surface so the pump, on the herring carrier, can pump them aboard.

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Pursing the seine
2004
Sandy Cove, Digby Co., Nova Scotia
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Here the herring is dried up (brought to the surface). The amount of herring is divided into two sections in the seine. This photo shows the smaller section.

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Herring Weir
1990
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Natives were the first weir fishermen. They observed thousands of silver fish swimming along the shores and found them hard to catch using tradional hooks and spears. The fish they saw were coastal Atlantic herring. They devised a way to catch these fish without leaving land. At low tide the fishermen constructed a type of net out of sticks pushed into the ground and a weave of branches and brushes. During high tide the fish would swim along the shore at night and get caught in the nets, leaving the fish on shore at low tide. Early Europeans accustomed to eating herring quickly adopted this method.

Info taken from the website: www.gma.org/herring

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Herring Weir illustration
1990
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Fixed gear weirs are still being used today. The modern herring weirs consist of a fence of long stakes driven into the ground with nets arranged in a circle, or heart-shape. At night the herring swimming along the shore swim into the weir and are unable to escape.

Info taken from the website: www.gma.org/herring

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Fishing Fleet at the Ferry/Fishermen's Wharf
1948
Digby, Nova Scotia

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Shown is Digby herring and scallop fleet in 1948.

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Digby Fishing Fleet at the Ferry/Fishermen's Wharf
2001
Digby, Nova Scotia
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Here is just a small section of the Digby Fishing Fleet. Today there would be approximately 75 to 80 ships in the fleet.

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Fishing Schooner: The Dorothy G. Snow
1911
Digby & Digby County, Nova Scotia
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The fishing schooner, Dorothy G. Snow, built 1911 at Joseph McGill's Shelburne shipyard, was owned by Captain Joseph E. Snow. Captain Snow was a retired Digby fishing skipper who operated one of the town's largest fresh smoked fish compaines. The schooner's name was in honour of his daughter Dorothy Greeley Snow and the first captain was her uncle, Joseph's brother, William Snow. The schooner was still sailing in 1960 out of St. Vincent Cape, Verde Island in Portuguese West Africa, under its new owner and was renamed the Maria Sonia.

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Snow's Wharf
1911
Digby, Nova Scotia
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