Saving Seafood

US Company Indicted for Illegally Smuggling Valuable Eels

May 4, 2022 — The federal government has indicted a seafood distributor and eight of its employees and associates on charges of smuggling valuable eels.

The company, American Eel Depot of Totowa, New Jersey, is the biggest importer and wholesale distributor of eel meat in the country. The Justice Department said on April 29 that the defendants in the case conspired to unlawfully smuggle large numbers of baby European eels out of Europe to a factory in China.

Read the full story at U.S. News & World Report

 

Maine’s fisherman report record $890M haul

May 3, 2022 — Maine’s commercial fishing industry set a new record last year, with a historic haul valued at more than $980 million, according to newly released data.

Figures from the state Department of Marine Resources show the value of fish landings jumped by more than $350 million between 2020 and 2021, breaking a previous record.

By far, lobster landings were the most valuable commercial fishery in Maine last year, with more than $730 million in landed value at an average wholesale price of $6.71 per-pound, according to the state agency. Lobsters were followed by soft shell clams, which were the second-most valuable species, with harvesters reporting more than $25 million in sales.

Elver fishermen reported more than $16 million in landings, making it the third most valuable fishery last year, the agency said. The elver fishery grew from $525 to $1,831 per pound between 2020 and 2021, according to the landings data.

Read the full story at The Center Square 

Lincoln County is a growing force in Maine’s elver fishery

April 20, 2022 — Elver season is winding down as almost 8,000 pounds of the tiny glassine eels have been pulled from Maine waters, including the Pemaquid and Medomak rivers in Lincoln County.

The elver fishery is the second most valuable fishery in Maine despite its brief season, lasting only 11 weeks from March 22 to June 7. Recent years have seen annual income generated by the fishery exceed $20 million. And from a per pound perspective it easily tops lobsters as the most lucrative fishery in the state, and possibly in the country.

High demand for the young eels overseas spiked the price to more than $2,800 per pound in 2018. After plummeting to around $500 in 2020 due to the pandemic, prices have recovered and are averaging $2,114 per pound this year, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Maine baby eels reach near-record prices as season ends early

April 18, 2022 — While their appearance is glass-like and puny, Maine elvers come with a price tag that’s a shock to many.

One pound of elvers, also known as baby glass eels, sells for more than $2,000, beating out a pandemic slump of just over $500 per pound, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

These eels are on the rebound, as many close to the industry said this is the best season they’ve had in recent history. This season was so productive. In fact, the limits will be reached before May, more than a month before their expected end date.

But why so expensive? These elvers may be two inches now but can grow up to five feet long.

These eels will also be shipped across the world to China and Japan, where they will be farmed for their meat.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

Baby eel value up to pre-pandemic levels despite challenges

April 12, 2022 — Concerns that war in Europe or fickle weather might hold back one of America’s most valuable fisheries appear to have been unfounded.

Baby eels, also called elvers, are one of the most lucrative wild fish species in the U.S. Maine is the only state in the country with a sizeable baby eel fishing industry, and the price for the tiny fish is back up to pre-pandemic levels this spring.

Fishermen are selling the baby eels for $2,110 per pound at docks, the Maine Department of Marine Resources reported Monday. They’ve also already run through more than four-fifths of their quota for the season, which runs from late March to early June.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

 

China’s ongoing COVID lockdowns threaten Maine’s baby eel season

March 22, 2022 — Warm weather this spring may boost catches of lucrative baby eels in Maine, but the ongoing effects of the covid pandemic still could hamper the global availability of the popular seafood item.

An abundance of eels during Maine’s 11-week elver season, which starts Tuesday, may not be able to overcome pandemic-related difficulties in shipping the eels to eastern Asia, where most elvers caught in Maine are raised to adulthood in aquaculture ponds in China and then sold into the enormous Japanese seafood market.

“As of now, the biggest challenge facing the industry this season will be the logistics of getting eels to their ultimate destinations,” said Mitchell Feigenbaum, a major distributor of Maine eels. “A severe COVID outbreak in Hong Kong combined with strict import controls have created great uncertainty in the market as the season prepares to open.”

China has maintained a “COVID zero” policy that in recent weeks has resulted in the country locking down areas where outbreak of the disease are detected, which potentially could inhibit the ability to ship Maine elvers to Chinese aquaculture sites. Because elvers have to be shipped live, the possibility of shipments being delayed and elvers dying en route can make things “very risky” for dealers, Feigenbaum said.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

Harvesters of valuable baby eels hope for a stable 2022

March 9, 2022 — The industry that harvests one of the most valuable fish species in the United States is hoping for a more stable year in 2022 after two years of volatile price swings.

Fishermen in Maine harvest baby eels, called elvers. The elvers are sometimes worth more than $2,000 per pound because they are vitally important for Asian aquaculture companies.

Maine is the only U.S. state with a significant fishery for the eels. Prices have fluctuated wildly since the start of COVID-19 pandemic. They sank to $525 per pound in 2020 and rose to about $1,850 last year.

This year’s season begins March 22 amid another cloud of uncertainty. The season is always dependent on weather conditions and the timing of rivers thawing, because that allows the eels to run and be fished with nets. Unrest in Europe also has the ability to disrupt the international supply chain for seafood, said Darrell Young, co-director of the Maine Elver Fishermen Association.

Read the full story from the Associated Press

 

MAINE: Waldoboro eel farm wants to raise at least 2 million eels a year for American tables

August 5, 2021 — Ground has been broken on Maine’s first land-based eel aquaculture operation in Waldoboro.

Sara Rademaker, founder and president of American Unagi, said when it’s complete, the 27,000-square-foot facility will be able to grow and process at least 2 million eels and perhaps take back a tiny portion of an industry that’s been dominated by Asian markets.

“Right now, we have this really valuable glass eel fishery. The entirety of that fishery is being exported mostly to China, they’re grown on farms there, and then we’re importing them back into the US,” Rademaker said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MASSACHUSETTS: Count finds more elvers visiting Rockport

July 12, 2021 — The numbers, brought to you by Eric Hutchins and his volunteers from their annual census of eel movement along the Mill Brook, have been down for several years.

Not in 2021. This summer, the mighty Mill Brook has exploded into the eel-formational super highway.

The year began promisingly, with 350 eels counted from April 1 to the second week of June. But no sooner had the first wave abated than another began and the Mill Brook was en fuego.

Hutchins, a NOAA Fisheries biologist and Gulf of Maine restoration coordinator, said the streak included several hundred-eel days. As of June 29, the total count was 985 — including a jump of 402 eels in a single week.

Eel-lectrifying!

Now the really important stuff: The Eel Raffle fundraiser, where ticket buyers tried to get closest to the pin on the final number of eels counted between April 1 and Columbus Day.

“Of the original 58 raffle tickets sold, only 14 are left viable with total count guesses over 1,000,” Hutchins wrote in a June 29 email. “The next closet ‘guess’ is 1,033. But that might fall later today. Things are fast and furious this year at the eel trap.”

Where they always respect their elvers

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Elvers plentiful in Japan, harvest remains capped

June 28, 2021 — The return of glass eels to Japan improved this year, but a subcommittee of the Fisheries Policy Council meeting held in Tokyo approved maintaining the current cap on the number that can be stocked to aquaculture ponds in line with a regional resource management agreement.

The amount of elvers of the Japanese eel, anguilla japonica, collected in Japan had been in decline since the latter half of the 1950s, corresponding with channelization of rivers for flood control and filling of wetlands for reclamation.

Read the full story at Seafood Source