I came across this image recently and it intrigues me. Seine net fishing for salmon and sewin has a long history in the Nevern estuary. Dillwyn Miles thought the monks of St Dogmaels introduced this type of fishing to the area. It involves laying a net with floats at the top and weights at the bottom, in a crescent shape from the shore. The nets used on Traeth Mawr were large and usually laid by boat and required a team of five to pull them in. It was heavy work so it's interesting that in this photo, which dates from 1904, four out of five of the people fishing were women. This is more apparent when the image is enlarged.
The woman on the left below seems to be wearing a tall Welsh hat. The long skirts look thick and sodden and must have made this very heavy work.
If anyone knows who these people might have been, I would love to know. The photographer is a bit of a mystery too. In the message on the back of the card, he says that this was his own photo but I can't quite make out the signature:-
Declining fish stocks have seriously restricted the issuing of licenses for this type of fishing but I took this picture of Seine net fishers at work in June. You can just spot them on the left of the picture silhouetted against the sea.
