AUGUSTA, Maine — December 11. 2013 — Should the state implement individual quotas for elver fishermen next spring, or should it just set a statewide quota and use a derby approach?
According to feedback Maine Department of Marine Resources officials received at a meeting Wednesday afternoon, individual catch quotas based on each fisherman’s catch history seemed to be the most palatable way to reduce statewide elver landings next spring. Because of concerns about the declining population of American eels, the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission has ordered Maine to reduce its annual harvest of the juvenile eels by between 25 percent and 40 percent.
But there were some fishermen among the 90 or so people who attended the meeting at the Augusta Civic Center who favor a different approach. A derby fishery, in which Maine DMR would set a statewide cap and let everyone fish until that cap was reached, could allow some licensed fishermen to catch as much as they did this past spring or even more. The potential for a big payday for the pricey eels, for which dealers paid fishermen around $1,600 per pound last spring, would still be there, they said.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News