The debate over catch limits and quotas for elvers in Maine and other Atlantic states could be renewed next week when a federal commission meets to review recommendations for changes to its proposed management plan for American eels.
The board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will meet Wednesday in Virginia to decide whether to move ahead on its working group's recommendations or incorporate details not included in the most recent management plan.
At stake is a fishery that's worth tens of millions of dollars a year in Maine alone, with baby eels often selling for $2,000 a pound or more.
Among its key recommendations, the working group:
• Voted unanimously against maintaining the status quo across all American eel fisheries. Members did not specify what changes should be made.
• Opposed closing the elver fishery, in part because of its economic importance to Maine and because the stock assessment numbers were skewed by dramatically different counts over a period of 20 years.
• Endorsed the concept of a quota system for harvesting of American eel in all life stages (elver, yellow and silver) but did not specify numbers.
• Supported the possibility of opening elver fisheries in states that do not now have them. A framework of standards to regulate new elver fisheries would have to be created.
• Proposed cutting the bag limit for recreational fisheries in half, to 25 pounds.
Some of the changes – including recreational catch limits – are expected to gain support, commission officials said. But based on past responses, others could be more controversial.
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald