Since Colonial times (and probably earlier), Cape Codders have caught cod, haddock, flounder, alewives, scup, mackerel, bluefish, striped bass, and many other species in weirs or traps along the shore.

Weir fishing was so extensive in the 1800s that some people blamed the nets for a decline in fish stocks.

The U.S. Congress sent Spencer Baird to New England to investigate, and he concluded that fishing practices were one of a number of factors causing inshore stocks to decline.

Through much of the 1900s, weirs were the most common fishing gear in and around Woods Hole. The nets were erected in the spring and removed in the fall. The weir pictured here was erected around 1960 in Buzzards Bay by S.P. Lovell and Sons.