NOVA SCOTIA, Canada — Editor's note: The attached video was originally published Sept. 10, 2023.
Five Mainers were recently arrested off the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada and accused of illegally fishing baby eels, one of the most valuable fish in the world.
The Fisheries and Oceans Canada department said on April 20 that fishery officers and a Nova Scotia conservation officer arrested the group and seized about 7.5 pounds of the baby eels, called elvers, a vehicle, three dip nets, and one fyke net from the group. The department did not identify the Mainers or say if they will face charges.
Canadian authorities last month said the country's elver fishery will not open this year due to conservation and safety concerns. Elvers are worth about $2,000 a pound, hundreds of times the price of lobster.
"Any individual caught fishing for elvers will face enforcement actions under the Fisheries Act and the Maritime Provinces Fishery Regulations," Canada's fisheries department said in a statement. "Any acts of violence or harassment towards fishery officers will not be tolerated and will be reported to the appropriate police force. 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."
Elvers are sold as seed stock to Asian aquaculture companies that raise them to maturity so they can be used as food, such as kabayaki, a dish of marinated, grilled eel. Some of the fish eventually return to the U.S. where they are sold at sushi restaurants.
Elvers weigh only a few grams and are harvested with nets. Maine is the only state in the U.S. with a significant elver catch. An interstate regulatory board that controls the fishery has released a plan to potentially keep the elver quota at its current level of a little less than 10,000 pounds a year with no sunset date. A board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to vote on a new quota system for the eel fishery May 1. The board could also extend the current quota for three years.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.