DFO halts baby eel fishery in N.S., N.B for 45 days over escalating conflict

The elver fishery in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia has been shut down for 45 days by Fisheries andOceans Canada beginning immediatelybecause of "conservation and safety concerns."

A news release from DFOon Saturday said after extensive monitoring it was determined that unreported removals made up a significant percentage of elver, or baby eel, landings.

Fishery officers conducted extensive patrols from March 13 to April 10 to ensure compliance with regulations for the harvesting and sale of elvers, according to the release.

The release states an increase in conflicts resulting in violence and threats risks the safety of harvesting and creates a threat to the management and control of the fishery.

According to the release, the minister responsible for fisheries has the authority under the Fisheries Act to prohibit fishing for a species to address threats to the management and control of fisheries.

A similar temporary shutdown of the elver fishery took place in 2020.

The juvenile American eels, also known as glass eels, are harvested in spring from rivers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and shipped live to Asia. They are grown to market size there.

In 2022, elvers sold for $5,000 per kilogram. The Maritime fishery is worth about $40 million a year.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a commercial quota of 9,960 kilograms a season.

In 2023, for the second year in a row, the federal government gave 14 per cent of the fishery in Nova Scotia and New Brunswickto First Nations.

Commercial fishers expressed dissatisfaction with the arrangement and said they have been poorly treated by DFO. Commercial licence holderslaunched a Federal Court challenge over the decision in March.

On April 13, twomen were arrested on a confrontation over the elverfishery in Hubbards. This confrontation followed theseizure of a shipment ofelvers, worth about $112,000 at Halifax international airport.

In a media release following the announcement, Rick Perkins, Conservative MP for South Shore-St. Margarets, called the decision "blatantly wrong."

"The government is shuttingdown a legal fishery in the middle of their short season because they cannot get the illegal poaching under control," Perkins said.

"Poachingelvers was illegal yesterday and it will be illegal tomorrow what makes the Minister think these
criminals are going to follow the 45-day ban?"

Attempts to contact a representative of theAssembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs for comment were not successful.

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