Museums 101: Commercial Fishing (Photo Diary)

Newport, Oregon, is a commercial fishing harbor and therefore some of the displays in the Pacific Maritime Museum and Heritage Center focus on fishing. There are both displays of fishing artifacts and posters explaining various aspects of commercial fishing in Oregon.

Shown above are repurposed World War II bomber oxygen tanks. The buoys were used in fishing for sharks.

Shown above is a crab pot from the early 1930s.

Shown above is a gill net which was used on the Siletz River to catch salmon in the early 1900s.

According to the display:

“A gill net is a net panel suspended in the water by floats along the top and weights along the bottom. The size of the mesh openings determines the size of the fish caught and enables smaller fish to pass through unharmed.”

Shown above is commercial trolling gear. The handy gurdy (spool) shown was used prior to 1950. This is used in fishing for salmon and tuna.

Shown above is a cold-water immersion suit or survival suit. These were first introduced in 1930 and have been required on commercial fishing vessels since 1988.

Shown above are the steps involved in making a Marshall salmon plug.

Shown above is a model of a fishing vessel.

Another model fishing vessel.

Posters

This timeline shows some of the changes in fishing for tuna since the nineteenth century.

Shown above is a timeline for Dungeness Crab.

Shown above is a time for Pacific Whiting, Oregon’s largest fishery.