<< Our Photo Pages >> Comox Harbor Ancient Fish Trap - Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry in Canada
Submitted by TheDruid-3X3 on Wednesday, 01 November 2023 Page Views: 1525
Multi-periodSite Name: Comox Harbor Ancient Fish Trap Alternative Name: Pentlach Fish WeirCountry: Canada
NOTE: This site is 56.083 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
Nearest Town: Comox Nearest Village: Millard Nature Park
Latitude: 49.661667N Longitude: 124.967778W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
Internal Links:
External Links:
A native fish trap system that was outlawed after the coming of the British Government and settlers. Newly appointed Fisheries Officers in the mid 18th Century dismantled and destroyed the fish trap system. Then for almost a century, knowledge of this brilliant, ancient technology disappeared. But then the big earthquake of 1946 loosened the sand in the harbour and swept some out to sea. Thousands of stakes started popping up.
Testing showed some of the fish traps in the Comox Harbour are more than 1,300 years old. That means people who spoke Pentlach, a language that is now extinct, started building fish traps in Comox Harbour around the year 700.
The ancient technology was amazingly complex, but simple too.
The fish traps used wooden stakes and woven panels to make fences along the shore. When the tide came in, the fish would swim up and into the fish trap, but they wouldn’t be able to find their way out.
Then when the tide went back out, the fish would be caught in the pool of water inside the trap. According to Hakai, the traps were a “Hotel California for salmon — they could check-in, but they could never leave.”
The old techniques have a lot to teach us about sustainable fishing. The way the fish traps were set up allowed people to adapt them to fit each local creek.
They also let people take the fish they needed and then release all the ones they didn’t need. They could let enough fish go to make sure the salmon population stayed healthy. A healthy salmon population would come back every year and keep the community fed.
Information from the Comox Valley News:
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Click here to see more info for this site
Nearby sites
Click here to view sites on an interactive map of the areaKey: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed
Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)
To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.
Turn off the page maps and other distractions
Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
1.7km NNE 25° Comox Estuary* Ancient Village or Settlement
36.9km ENE 58° Pictographs near Powell River ferry terminal Rock Art
41.5km S 175° Sproat Lake Petroglyphs* Rock Art
69.6km NNW 344° Ancient clam gardens on Quadra Island* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
87.8km E 92° Salmon Inlet Barrow Cemetery
90.3km ESE 103° shíshálh Nation tems swiya Museum Museum
95.1km SE 127° Petroglyph Provincial Park (British Columbia)* Rock Art
97.9km ESE 122° Lock Bay Site* Rock Art
103.1km SE 125° Cedar by the Sea Petroglyphs* Rock Art
107.5km ESE 122° Degnen Bay Site* Rock Art
131.0km ESE 109° Museum of Anthropology - University of British Columbia* Museum
136.7km ESE 106° Skalsh Rock* Rock Outcrop
136.8km ESE 106° Coast Salish Stone Fish Weir* Stone Row / Alignment
138.6km ESE 106° Xwayzway Village* Ancient Village or Settlement
146.4km S 170° Makah Cultural and Research Center Museum
152.5km ESE 117° Tsawwassen Long House Site* Ancient Village or Settlement
157.0km ESE 110° Sewqueqsen Settlement at St.Mungo Cannery* Ancient Village or Settlement
157.2km ESE 110° Glenrose Cannery* Ancient Village or Settlement
167.0km S 174° Ozette Ancient Village or Settlement
169.2km S 174° Wedding Rock* Rock Art
172.4km ESE 114° P'Quals White Rock* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
184.2km SE 145° Race Rocks Ecological Reserve* Ring Cairn
202.5km SSE 147° Tse-whit-zen Barrow Cemetery
204.6km ESE 105° Xaytem Ancient Native Settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement
212.8km ESE 107° Sumas Lightning Rock* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
View more nearby sites and additional images