Haaf Net Fishermen, Solway Estuary - geograph

Haaf net fishing is an ancient type of

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

and

sea trout Sea trout is the common name usually applied to anadromous (sea-run) forms of brown trout (''Salmo trutta''), and is often referred to as ''Salmo trutta'' morpha ''trutta''. Other names for anadromous brown trout are sewin (Wales), peel or peal ...

net fishing practised in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, and is particularly associated with the

Solway Firth The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in ...

, the

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

forming part of the border between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The technique involves fishermen standing chest-deep in the sea and using large submerged framed nets to scoop up fish that swim towards them. It is a form of fishing that is believed to have been brought to Britain by the

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

more than a thousand years ago and to have been practised in the Solway Firth since then. The number of haaf net fishermen has dwindled over the last 50 years and the activity has been restricted by salmon conservation measures. The haaf net fishing community have campaigned for exemptions from these restrictions and for protection as an ancient cultural activity.

Etymology and history

The word ''Haaf'' is derived from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

for “open sea”. Haaf net fishing is a type of

and

fishing which is practised in

South West Scotland South West Scotland is an ambiguous term that can include Ayrshire, Galloway, Dumfriesshire, the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, as well as Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire. However the inclusion or exclusion of these areas is to an extent arbitrary: the only ...

and

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

. Haaf netting has its origins in the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

. The technique is believed to have been brought to Scotland by the

around 900 A.D. In the 1870s,

Spencer Walpole Sir Spencer Walpole KCB, FBA (6 February 1839 – 7 July 1907) was an English historian and civil servant. Background He came of the younger branch of the ''de facto'' first prime minister, Robert Walpole who revived the Whig Party, bei ...

reported that haaf net fishing was taking place in the

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

of the

Lune Lune may refer to: Rivers *River Lune, in Lancashire and Cumbria, England *River Lune, Durham, in County Durham, England *Lune (Weser), a 43 km-long tributary of the Weser in Germany *Lune River (Tasmania), in south-eastern Tasmania, Australia Pl ...

and Ribble in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, and in the

Severn Estuary The Severn Estuary ( cy, Aber Hafren) is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England and South Wales. Its high tidal range, approximately , means that it has been at the centre of discussions in t ...

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

Haaf net fishing is now unique to the

, where it has been practised for over a thousand years. In the 1970s, there were over a 100 haaf net fishermen based in towns such as Annan or Gretna making a good living. From the 1980s, the economics of fishing with haaf nets meant that numbers have significantly reduced with only 30 individuals currently practising the technique. On the Scottish side of the Firth, since 2016, the Scottish Government has introduced salmon conservation measures resulting in haaf net fishermen being required to release alive any salmon they catch. The English side of the Firth is regulated by the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

which, after a consultation process, introduced similar restrictions in 2018. As a consequence, the Solway’s haaf net community believe the survival of their traditions is threatened and is seeking exemptions from these requirements and official recognition that haaf netting should be protected as a culturally important and historic activity. In response,

Marine Scotland The Marine Scotland Directorate ( gd, Cùisean Mara na h-Alba) is a directorate of the Scottish Government. Marine Scotland manages Scotland's seas and freshwater fisheries along with delivery partners NatureScot and the Scottish Environmen ...

, the Scottish Government agency responsible for fish conservation, has said that the issue is that the salmon stocks of the Firth of Solway feed into rivers with differing levels of salmon sustainability and some of the rivers have low levels. Because the Firth is therefore classified as a “mixed stock fishery”, they cannot permit retention of any salmon caught.

Equipment and technique

The net used has the appearance of a giant

butterfly net A butterfly net (sometimes called an aerial insect net) is one of several kinds of nets used to collect insects. The entire bag of the net is generally constructed from a lightweight mesh to minimize damage to delicate butterfly wings. Other ty ...

. It is set in a rectangular wooden frame usually about four or five metres long and two metres wide supported by three legs. A central pole extends from one of the longer edges at a right angle. Haaf net fishing is practised by the fishermen wading out into the sea. In the Solway Firth, this can mean walking out over

mudflats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

for up to one mile. Once in the sea, they position themselves and wait for the tide to ebb or flood. The depth of the water can be up to chest height. The technique involves the haaf net being submerged in the water, while the fisherman holds it upright with the central pole. When a salmon swims into the net the fisherman tilts the pole backwards to scoop the net upwards, thereby trapping the fish. The fisherman then kills the fish by clubbing it.

References

{{reflist

External links

Visit Cumbria - Haaf Netting in CumbriaSolway Haaf Netters AssociationHaaf Netting Information
from The Royal Burgh of Annan Community Council
The Environment Agency (Limitation of Solway Firth Heave or Haaf Net Fishing Licences) Order 2018
Fishing techniques and methods Fishing nets Solway Firth