Connor Rogan, who helps Angelo with the weirs, kneels on the poles before they are set up.
By Doreen Leggett
A fishing method that dates to at least 9000 B.C. will likely still grace the waters of Barnstable.
When the only weir fisherman on the Cape decided to focus on other fisheries, it looked like the last of the poles and nets that trapped migrating fish would disappear.
Jake Angelo, 32, fishing since he was a kid, always thought trap fishing was interesting. He figured he could take it on.
“I said ‘Hey, I’ll do it,’” said Angelo, who fishes for everything from scup to conch, black sea bass to razor clams.
After a trial run last year, he asked the Barnstable Waterways Committee for a five-year permit, typical and essential for business planning. He had a lot of support.
“The fact that a young applicant wants to continue fishing on already permitted sites gives the town the decision to either allow this rich tradition to continue or submit to the ongoing gentrification that is killing our locally honored traditions and history,” wrote Connor Rogan, a resident and fisherman.
Rogan, who fished the weir with Angelo, was one of more than a dozen supporters who attended hearings or wrote letters. Angelo’s request was for two weirs, one off Wianno, the other Hyannis Port. After four meetings, the waterways committee approved a five-year permit for Angelo in late July.
“I want to continue it,” said member Todd Walantis.
Angelo still needs permission from the Town Council, and considering the length of the permitting process – and the fact he would have to drive to Upper State New York to find, buy, and cut down 200 40-foot poles (preferably hickory) – he’s setting his sights on 2026.
The weirs are about 1,000 yards long by 30 yards wide and look like a masterpiece from above, more like an M.C. Escher painting from the water.
Poles are planted in a line 15 feet apart and run perpendicular to the beach, leading into what looks like a heart.
When schooling fish sense the “leader,” their instinct is to turn out to deeper water and into the heart. From there they move through a gate into what’s called the bowl, which has a net that creates an enclosed space within another circle of poles. The fish are harvested there.
Part of the peninsula’s history for generations, weirs saw their heyday in the early 1900s. By this century there were only a few companies. When Angelo sets his nets next fall, he’ll be the last active Cape weir fisherman. Perhaps on the entire East Coast.
To help win approval, Angelo’s attorney David Lawler, and others, invoked the long history.
“That’s our heritage,” Lawler said. “If this dies here it may never come back to the Cape. That would be a travesty.”
Others said it was also the future.
“As a community that values its maritime roots and future-facing environmental goals, the Town of Barnstable has an opportunity to continue supporting a tradition that bridges both,” wrote Shareen Davis of the Chatham Harvesters, a fishermen’s co-operative. Davis, a Chatham selectperson, also has a long family history in weir fishing. “The continued operation of Jacob Angelo’s fish weir exemplifies what a responsible, place-based fishery looks like: environmentally sound, economically meaningful, and culturally significant.”
George Maynard, a scientist with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a Barnstable resident, said the weir offered a valuable scientific opportunity to deploy environmental sensors.
“These systems benefit the regional scientific enterprise as well as all maritime stakeholders who rely on oceanographic forecasts, but the data would not be possible to collect without the participation of fishermen like Mr. Angelo,” he wrote.
Jared Aurbach, owner of Red’s Best, buys fish from Angelo and said he’s a stand-up guy.
“It’s a noble profession to harvest food for your community,” he told the committee.
Concerns of Harbormaster Brian Taylor, as well as the waterways committee, centered on the possibility of vessels hitting traps.
“I am in a sticky spot here because I really want to support the commercial fishing industry, but I also have to represent recreational boating traffic and first and foremost public safety,” said Taylor.
Taylor added he hoped traps would be used in the spring, as in recent years, and not the fall, which is busier. Angelo plans to set traps in the fall, which follows earlier traditions with less seaweed to gum up the traps and a focus on black bass, false albacore and bonito.
Growing up in Barnstable he has seen a lot of changes.
“Now we have all these warm water fish, as far as you can see,” he said.
Angelo, through Lawler, said he would be willing to add additional lights on the weirs. Because Angelo is on the waterways committee he did not attend meetings and testify on his application.
Lawler committed to putting a large, lighted buoy in front of the weir as well as posting information about the location of the weirs at every marina.
The committee, particularly Chairman Paul Everson, supported those changes. Decades ago, Everson had to respond to a deadly incident when a boat hit a weir.
Although people were sympathetic to safety concerns, they pointed out that weirs have always been clearly marked.
“Weirs are not navigational hazards. In fact, they are registered and documented as private aids to navigation with the U.S. Coast Guard,” wrote Ernie Eldredge, who fished weirs for 60 years.
Angelo said he worked on weirs one recent spring with Kurt Martin, who had the sites in Barnstable. He spent three or four days every week learning tricks of the trade.
Eldredge, who helped Angelo set up the weir last year, said trap fishing can only continue if people like Angelo step up.
“It requires knowledge, timing, strength and a good deal of patience,” he wrote. “But more than that it requires a sense of responsibility – to the fishery, to the community and to the long line of people who came before.”