Five people from Maine were arrested by Canadian authorities late Saturday night for the unauthorized fishing of elvers in the Meteghan area of Digby County, near the southwestern coast of the province, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Ocean (DFO) announced Wednesday.
Elvers, or “glass eels,” are extremely valuable baby American eels — often fetching more than $2,000 per pound — that are in high demand in East Asian countries, where the juvenile eels are raised in aquaculture farms to maturity and used in Japanese cuisine (unagi).
The Maine Department of Marine Resources holds lotteries annually for a capped number of elver fishing licenses, and sets quotas on the number of elvers allowed to be caught each spring, the season when the juvenile eels move from the open ocean and enter estuaries and ascend rivers.
According to the Canadian DFO, during a patrol late in the night on Saturday, April 21, in the Meteghan area, fishery officers alongside a Nova Scotia Conservation Officer arrested five individuals from Maine for infractions under the Fisheries Act, legislation enacted by the Canadian Parliament that regulates fisheries and fishing vessels.
During these arrests, officers seized 3.448 kilograms (7.6 pounds) of elvers, one vehicle, three dip nets, and one fyke net — a funnel-shaped net used to catch the tiny eels.
The identities of the five individuals arrested were not released, and the DFO did not say whether the individuals would be charged.
Unrelated to the five Mainers arrested, DFO stated that during the Saturday patrol they seized an additional 13 kilograms (nearly 30 pounds) of elvers and various other fishing gear from the same location.
The fishery officers returned nearly 16.5 kilograms of elvers to their river of origin, DFO stated.
The arrests come as the DFO on March 11 announced that the area’s spring elver season would be canceled due to “conservation and safety concerns” due to a surge in unauthorized fishing.
The DFO stated that since March 7, fishery officers have arrested a total of 95 individuals, seized 21 vehicles, 73.6 kilograms of elvers, 58 fyke nets and 175 dip nets.
“Any acts of violence or harassment towards fishery officers will not be tolerated and will be reported to the appropriate police force,” the Canadian agency stated Wednesday. “DFO will continue to work closely with our partner agencies and departments, as well as with local police to monitor and address any criminal activity and reports of threats, intimidation, or violence against fishery officers and other law enforcement personnel.”
Stanley King, a commercial licence holder with Atlantic Elver Fishery, told the Canadian outlet CBC that people from Maine have been coming to Nova Scotia to illegally fish for elvers, but that to his knowledge this is the first time someone from the U.S. has been arrested.
“If you don’t have a license, or you’ve caught all you’re allotted, I’m sure these people, who have no respect for the law, are looking for other places to ply their trade,” King told CBC in a Wednesday interview.
Elvers are also caught by several federally recognized Indian Tribes in Maine, and is a traditional food source among the people of the Mi’kmaq Nation.
This story will be updated with any additional information.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27586 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27586">3 Comments
Elvers are high on my list of concerns.
Thank God! They finally caught those illegal elver fishermen.
I can finally stop worrying and get my life back to normal.
Maybe Canadian authorities should be spending more time stopping ILLEGALS crossing into the USA!!!!