Five Maine residents were arrested in Nova Scotia last week for allegedly poaching baby eels, also known as elvers, according to Canadian officials.
The names of the Mainers were not included in an announcement by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the agency that regulates the country’s commercial fishing.
The agency did not respond Monday to requests for additional information.
Worth thousands of dollars per pound, elvers are caught when they migrate in the spring from oceans to freshwater upstream. Maine’s elver fishery, which is tightly regulated, legally generates roughly $20 million in annual revenue for licensed fishermen.
Canadian law enforcement officers were on patrol near the Meteghan River in southwestern Nova Scotia when they came across the group of suspected poachers, according to the announcement.
“During these arrests, officers seized 3.448 kilograms [7.6 pounds] of elvers, one vehicle, three dip nets, and one fyke net,” the agency said. “In addition, and not related to the individuals arrested during this patrol, officers seized another 13 kilograms [28.6 pounds] of elvers and various other fishing gear, from the same location.”
The average price paid this spring for elvers legally caught in Maine has been $1,139 per pound, according to state officials, putting the value of last week’s seizure in Nova Scotia at more than $41,000, or more than $56,000 in Canadian currency. Maine’s annual elver fishery is capped at 9,600 pounds.
The vast majority of baby eels caught in the U.S. and Canada are shipped live to Asia and then raised to adult stage in aquaculture ponds before being harvested for the global seafood market.
Canadian news agencies have reported that this spring’s elver fishery in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia has been volatile.
Authorities have made 95 arrests and seized 21 vehicles, 233 fishing nets, and more than 160 pounds of elvers, the CBC has reported. The fishery was shut down by federal officials in early March because “surges” in poaching have led to conservation concerns and at least one violent altercation, according to the CBC.
Maine, which has the only significant elver fishery in the U.S., also struggled with poaching after demand for elvers soared in the early 2010s, when Europe banned their exports because of declining eel populations there.
But since Maine and U.S. officials cracked down on poaching and imposed strict elver fishing regulations in 2014, reports of poaching in Maine have sharply declined.