Tag Archives: Elver season
Challenges facing elver fishers as season opens
We’re nearly a week into elver season. The baby eel fishery on Maritime rivers has been plagued by shutdowns, poaching and illegal activity over the years. The federal Fisheries department decided to open the season last weekend, with several changes. A new app is now in place to track the catch, and a new quota plan gives more commercial catch to First Nations. Stanley King with Atlantic Elver Fishery Ltd. says some of his quota was taken without compensation. “First Nations now hold 53 percent of the fishery. We’re a shell of our former company, and other commercial license holders are feeling the same way. At this point, we’re trying to make ends meet,” said King. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:02
As the elver season opens, a First Nation is pushing back hard against DFO
In the coming weeks, Matthew Cope will anchor his cone-shaped fyke net along a river, and as the overnight hours creep by and the ocean tide comes in, he will catch tiny but highly lucrative juvenile eels. He will do so, however, without authorization from the Department of Fisheries, asserting that as a Mi’kmaw harvester, he has a treaty right to fish for the young eels, known as elvers, even outside of federal regulations. He expects to be stopped, and even arrested by fisheries officers, as he was last year during an elver seizure at a transport facility in Dartmouth, N.S. Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:40
Coronavirus: Elver Season Starts, But Prices Plunge
At 8 a.m., Monday, March 30, about 30 elver fishermen were at the Pemaquid Falls town landing to claim their fishing spots for a shortened season. The elver, or glass eel, season in Maine got off to a late start because of a coronavirus-related delay from March 22 to March 30. Bristol Town Administrator Chris Hall said in a phone interview March 30 that he estimates there were at least 60 fishermen at Pemaquid Falls on opening day last year. The price of elvers has dropped significantly this year, from more than $2,000 per pound in 2019 to $500 per pound, the lowest starting price since 2010. This is down from a price of $2,700-$2,800 at the start of the 2018 season, the highest ever seen in Maine’s elver fishery. photo galley, >click to read< 18:51
Maine: Slow start to elver season means high price for baby eels
Maine’s baby eel season is off to a slow start, causing prices to balloon back to historic levels as fishermen wait for waterways to finish thawing. Elvers, also called , are sold overseas as seed stock for Asian aquaculture companies that raise them to maturity and sell them as food. Maine fishermen are by far the largest supplier of elvers in the U.S. Some end up back in America in restaurants as sushi. Read the rest here 14:50
Elver season opens Sunday in Maine, expected to start slow
Darrel Young, president of the Maine Elver Fishermen’s Association, said Friday that because of low temperatures in the early part of last spring, he did not catch his first elver until the end of April. “I don’t think I’m going to catch one until then this year, either,” Young said. “ Last year was really quiet.” Read the rest here 14:09
