Inspecting and Repairing a Weir

Like all fishers, Josée Malenfant and Simon Beaulieu inspect and repair their equipment at every tide.

Josée Malenfant bends over a fishing net spread out on the foreshore and checks to see if the bottles are solidly attached to it and able to float.

[Narrator] The Malenfant Beaulieus use everyday containers that they have carefully rinsed and recycled to serve as floaters for their nets. Josée makes sure that each bottle is properly attached. She replaces any bottles that no longer float or are damaged. She also checks to see if any branches are caught in the nets. She repairs any holes that branches or rocks may have made.

Simon Beaulieu places spruce boughs under a collecting box. He is dressed in boot-foot waders and has water up to his ankles.

Simon also maintains the weir. He puts spruce boughs beneath the collecting boxes. The boughs allow sand and small rocks to accumulate and thus anchor the boxes.

The fisher takes rocks from the water and places them on the boughs surrounding the collecting box of an eel trap.

He uses large rocks to hold the boughs in place.