PORTLAND, Maine — March 17, 2013 — Last year’s eel fishing season started strongly when prices rocketed above $2,000 a pound. High prices are again expected when the 2013 season kicks off Friday.
Prices won’t be set until the catch gets under way, but eel dealers say there’s little doubt that they'll be high.
‘‘If the catches are great, the prices will go lower. If the catches are poor, the prices will go higher,’’ said Mitchell Feigenbaum, owner of Delaware Valley Fish Co., which buys eels in Portland and ships them to China. ‘‘There’s still ample demand for the product worldwide.’’
The price that fishermen get for their eels has fluctuated wildly through the years, but spiked two years ago due to an eel shortage from Japan and export restrictions in Europe.
Last year the price reached unprecedented levels. When all was said and done, they were worth $38 million — an average of just under $2,000 a pound — to fishermen, making it the state’s second-most-valuable fishery behind lobster in 2012.
The state has issued 413 licenses to fishermen who stake out spots along Maine’s coastal rivers and streams, where they catch the eels in fine-mesh nets as they swim upstream during the 10-week season, which ends May 31.
Besides the licenses issued by the state, the Passamaquoddy tribe issued another 237 licenses to tribal members last year, up from two the previous year. The tribe issued the licenses when the prices shot up, arguing they were entitled to fish what they wanted because state law didn’t put any limit on tribal licenses.
Tim LaRochelle, a harvester and eel buyer from Woolwich, and two of his fishermen friends parked their vehicles in a lot along a river outside of Portland on Thursday in preparation for the season ahead. They'll work the river in the weeks ahead, sleep in their vehicles and won’t leave until the season is over, he said.
He first fished for eels in the mid-1990s and recalls years when he was getting under $30 a pound. Fishermen typically haul in about two pounds per day.
In years past, nobody ever thought prices would go as high as they have, he said. There were reports of fishermen making $10,000 to $20,000 a day last year
Read the full story by the Associated Press at The Boston Globe