Commercial Fishing the Fish Traps of Chatham Massachusetts

Lots of summer visitors to Chatham's Harding's Beach have seen these strange looking formations of wooden poles in the water. What they are seeing are the fish traps that are used by commercial fishermen in the warm waters Of Nantucket Sound. The fish traps are also known as pound nets or fish weirs. In actuality, these are used to catch various species of fish by commercial fishermen who live in Chatham Massachusetts. I was a part-time commercial rod and reel fisherman who often fished the same nearby waters and often saw these guys at work.

The fish trap is an odd looking contraption of small poles (trees) 25 feet long stripped of their branches. These poles are painted red with anti-fouling paint that is used to keep barnacles off of the bottom of boats. These poles are then sunk into the bottom of the ocean and spaced somewhere around 30 to 50 feet apart. Then a fish netting is tied to the poles. This method of fishing is over 300 years old. Supposedly, the Pilgrims learned this type of catching fish from the Indians.

The fish that they catch in the fish traps ranges from Squid in the springtime to Boston Mackerel, Porgies(Scup), Butter fish, Blue Fish, Striped Bass, Black Sea Bass and various Flounders and occasionally a Giant Blue Fin Tuna. Due to catch limits imposed in recent years it may be tougher for these fishermen to survive financially. Perhaps the fishing will get better with conservation.

To describe a fish trap try to picture a tennis racket. The fish trap is actually about two hundred yards in all more or less. The long handle is a series of wooden poles that are driven into the sand. There is a net that runs along the handle and leads to the circular part or heart of the fish trap. There are guy lines attached to help anchor the poles and nets. The fish tend to run in schools. As they swim along, they bump into the net. Then they have to go along the net, and are led into a circular net held up by poles called the heart of the trap.

The trap fishermen go inside the heart of the trap with their boats. The net has lines attached that allow it to be made smaller like a drawstring on a sack. By pulling on ropes, the fish in the net can be brought closer to the open 30 foot boat that the fish trappers favor. Using dip nets they take the fish and scoop them aboard into plastic baskets and fish boxes. The fish are then iced for freshness.

Then the load is taken to the fish pier and offloaded. The trap boat pulls alongside a large rectangular fish box. The fish are dumped into this large box. An electric winch raises the box that holds six hundred pounds, and dumps it onto a chute and the fish are iced and boxed ready for the trucks. Refrigerated trucks then transport the fresh catch 250 miles or so to New York city and other places.

A now deceased friend of mine, Dave Eldridge,(an amateur historian) lived there in Chatham. He often told me that the trap fishermen had some of the nicest houses in town. For many years, they made a good living. Now, this method of fishing may be coming to an end due to the scarcity of fish and greed of all the fishermen. All the fishermen in town are suffering from the scarcity of fish these days due to the public's high demand for seafood. Fish stocks have dwindled and more boats are chasing fewer fish. Tough times for commercial fishermen in Chatham and all the ports these days.