Museum A-Ö » The archipelago, fishing and seafaring » Kaskinen Fishing Museum

Fishing has throughout times played an important part in the lives of the people of Kaskinen. Fishing provided them with both food and work. The photographs and numerous objects in this former salting house illustrate, how fishing was done in the old times, what kind of equipment was used for it, what was needed on the long fishing trips and how fish was preserved.

In the old fishing port of Kaskinen is one of the salting houses of the city, which today serves as a fishing museum. There are about thirty well-preserved coastal barns next to the salting house nearby the coast, most of which date back to the 19th century. The fishers used them for storing fishing device, boat equipment and salted fish. The boats were, however, never stored in the coastal barns. On the hill next to the fishing museum are some stone heaps used for supporting the net-drying racks. They were placed on an open spot, in order for the nets to dry faster in the sun and wind.

The Kaskinen fishing guild started already in the latter half of the 20th century to collect objects illuminating fishing traditions, but the actual fishing museum wasn’t established until in 1983 when the city of Kaskinen bought the salting building belonging to Kurt Koskinen. The salting house had served already in the 1910s as a fish shop, and the business continued until 1978.

Catching of Baltic herring has been an essential part of the traditional fishing trade of Kaskinen. Downstairs in the museum are displayed large fykes and various nets, among others a herring net with its bark floats. Upstairs are objects and pictures displayed according to theme, illustrating catching of Baltic herring, whitefish, salmon and seal. Numerous photographs depicting fishermen working in their own milieu are among the pearls of the museum.