ELLSWORTH, Maine — April 6, 2014 — The state’s 2014 elver season officially opened at noon Sunday under a significantly different management scheme but with many of the high hopes people have placed in the lucrative fishery for the past few years.
And it may proceed relatively absent of the rancor and legal skirmishing that has simmered between the state and the Passamaquoddy Tribe since 2012. Despite raising fierce objections to state demands that it impose individual quotas on its tribal licensees, tribal officials have indicated this weekend that it has changed its tribal laws and implemented individual quotas.
“Given the dire economic problems facing tribal members and the investment of two years in developing the elver fishery, the tribe made the difficult decision to amend their own law to assure safety for their fishers” Joseph Socobasin, chief of the tribe’s Indian Township, said Saturday in a prepared statement.
Clayton Cleaves, chief of the tribe’s community at Pleasant Point, said that when he met with Gov. Paul LePage last month, LePage indicated he might ask the National Guard to assist if there are any riverside confrontations.
“We want our people to be safe,” Cleaves said. “This is of paramount importance.”
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News