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Tsimshian rock trap complex

This Tsimshian rock trap complex is located on one of the islands near the mouth of the Skeena River. Like many others in the region, it may date back thousands of years. Not everything is known about how these traps functioned, but the following describes how this salmon trap at the mouth of a small stream was probably used. It is important to note that rock traps are designed to capture salmon only when the people fishing are present.

This estuary dries at low tide, leaving a freshwater stream meandering through the dry sand. Four dikes control stream-bound salmon movement by keeping the salmon in the drying estuary and eventually concentrating them in the stream and in drying pools behind the dikes. Two short fishing jetties along the stream give access to the fish with spear or dip net. There's also a mystery jetty. This is the lowest of four dikes controlling salmon movement into and out of the drying lagoon below the mouth of their natal stream. The estuary is completely dry, except for the freshwater stream and isolated pools. High tide gives salmon access to the estuary. Low tide forces them out into the larger inlet, unless fishers are at the dikes to harvest them.



Second in the series of three dikes


This second in the series of three dikes manages the fish that have not been harvested above the next higher dike. Imagine the tide falling, and as it falls, some fish are not harvested at the higher dike, for whatever reason they get away. Other fishers are at this dike disturbing the water to hold the just-escaped salmon for harvest.




At the same time, still other fishers are on the two short jetties catching the salmon concentrated in the stream bed. But what about the heavily silted long jetty on the right? Is it an old disassembled dike whose stones were used to complete the dike just below it? Or is it a long jetty reaching a pool, long since silted in and barely visible?



Third in the series of three dikes

This dike forces salmon leaving the estuary on a falling tide to the freshwater stream on the other side of the islet. This simplifies harvest management by concentrating salmon in only one portion of the estuary.





Txamsem and the salmon story



                                   audio clip   audio, 3 minutes, 31 seconds (32 Kbps)