December 4, 2025 — The federal government has decided against listing the American eel under the Species at Risk Act, a move that comes after more than a decade of indecision and years of chaos and controversy in the lucrative Maritime fishery for juvenile eels, also known as elvers.
The decision is being both welcomed and criticized, with the commercial elver sector noting that listing the eel as a species at risk would have shut down the industry, while other observers have urged for it to be protected for conservation reasons.
American eel was first assessed as a species of “special concern” in 2006 by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife. In 2012, the advisory group designated it as threatened, but for 13 years the federal government would not decide whether to formally list it as a species at risk.
In a news release issued Tuesday, the federal government said it came to its decision after considering “the best available scientific and socioeconomic data,” and comments from Indigenous groups, provinces, stakeholders and the Canadian public.