Saving Seafood

Maine’s lucrative baby eel fishing season ending for year

June 7, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s lucrative fishing season for baby eels is wrapping up for 2016.

The season for baby eels, also called elvers, officially ends on Tuesday. The season for fishermen who have hit their quota for the year has already ended.

The eels are sold to Asian aquaculture companies who raise them to maturity for use as food.

Fishermen in the state were allowed to catch a little less than 10,000 pounds of elvers this year. State officials said fishermen were within 400 pounds of the quota by the end of May.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

Sara Rademaker is letting little eels get big in Maine

May 31, 2016 — SOUTH BRISTOL, Maine — “They are like little torpedoes,” Sara Rademaker says, looking down at a tank full of year-old eels in a feeding frenzy.

Her tone is fond, almost as if the eels wiggling in and out of a submerged laundry basket were a basket of lively kittens, but this is all business. Rademaker is doing what no one has tried to do in Maine before – grow out elvers to eels for the commercial food market.

Rademaker is a young woman, but has 12 years of farming and aquaculture experience. A graduate of Auburn University in Alabama, she’s worked with subsistence farmers in Uganda as part of a U.S. AID project and farmed tilapia in Ghana. She’s taught middle school students how to farm tilapia and lettuces.

Three years ago she began studying European and Asian systems for growing elvers into eels in contained areas, asking herself the question, why not here in Maine, the biggest source of American baby glass eels in the country?

Although she’s just starting her third year developing her eel aquaculture system, she’s gearing up to bring her first eels to market this summer, with plans to tap into the local sushi market to begin with.

“She’s already so far ahead of anyone else in the state,” says Dana Morse, a UMaine Cooperative Extension associate professor and researcher based at the Darling Marine Center. “It’s impressive.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Elvers and out: Fishing season likely to end early

May 18, 2016 — Last year, legislative haggling delayed the start of the elver fishing season, cold weather delayed the arrival of elvers in Maine streams and by the time the season closed at the end of May harvesters still had not landed the total allowable quota of baby eels.

This year, the season was extended for a week to give the fishermen a better shot of filling their quotas, but the elvers paid no heed to the extension and were among the earliest snowbirds returning to Maine. One result of their early arrival is that it is likely that the Department of Marine Resources will shut the fishing season down several weeks early because the federally mandated annual harvest quota has been filled.

Two years ago, at the behest of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the state adopted a statewide 9,688-pound overall landings quota for the elver fishery. The Legislature further allocated that quota among harvesters licensed by DMR and harvesters from each of the state’s four recognized Indian tribes.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

MAINE: Harvest Season for Biggest US Producer of Baby Eels Wraps Up

May 17, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The nation’s biggest producer of valuable baby eels is nearing the close of a much more productive harvesting season.

The state’s baby eels, called elvers or glass eels, are a major fishery because they are prized by aquaculture companies and demand for them is high. Fishermen in Maine, the only state with a significant elver fishery, are allowed to catch about 9,700 pounds of the elvers every spring.

Fishermen are within 900 pounds of the quota, and the elvers have sold for about $1,450 per pound this year — less than last year’s record of nearly $2,200, but easily enough for a greater total value.

Asian aquaculture companies buy the elvers to use as seed stock so they can be raised to maturity and used as food, including sushi, some of which comes back to America.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Food Manufacturing

Hardy eels are holding on in Rhode Island

April 25, 2016 — The American eel has been a valuable resource in Rhode Island for hundreds of years.

Narragansett tribal historian Lorén Spears tells a story about how her father-in-law and tribal elder, Robin Spears, used to fish for eels on the salt marshes.

“What they used to do to get the eels is they would walk through the eel grass at night, and the eels would actually stand up like fence posts and then you harvest the eels,” she said. “Then, you would roll them in Jonnycake meal when you were cooking them. The eels are unique, because they cross the land, which is why you could get them in the eel grass.”

The Narragansetts also used eel skins. “You could tan the skin and use as you would use a snakeskin, where it could be part of clothing or adornment,” she said.

Today in Rhode Island, eels are still eaten, but they are most often used as bait in the recreational fishery. Catch limits are 25 eels for individuals and 50 eels for large recreational fishing boats. The eels must be over 9 inches long.

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun

MAINE: Big tides, mild nights propel elver harvest

April 21, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — With a magnetic swipe card system now in place, the Department of Marine Resources is able to track elver landings — or at least sales by harvesters to dealers — more or less as they occur in real time.

On Friday, DMR released totals, current through 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 14, for all elver purchases reported by licensed dealers from DMR and tribally-licensed harvesters.

As of the cutoff time, fishermen had landed a total of 2,932.39 pounds of elvers since the season began on March 22. That represents just over 30 percent of the 9,688-pound annual quota for all harvesters set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

In the four days since the previous report, harvesters sold some 738 pounds of elvers to Maine dealers. Of that, harvesters licensed by DMR rather than by one of the state’s four recognized tribes landed 426.34 pounds. As of Tuesday morning, dealers were paying harvesters about $1,450 per pound for live elvers.

See the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Maine Marine Patrol Arrest Gardiner Man for Illegal Possession of Elvers

April 7, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Maine Marine Patrol arrested Dana Wayne-Holmes, 61 of Gardiner on Saturday April 2 for illegal possession of elvers. Illegal possession of elvers is a criminal offense and is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2000 fine.

Holmes was arrested in Waldoboro after an investigation by the Marine Patrol revealed that he was attempting to purchase and sell elvers without a license. Holmes held an elver dealer license in 2015, however he does not hold a current dealers license.

Also charged in the investigation was licensed harvester Irving Banks, 47 of Jefferson. Banks was charged with exceeding his individual elver quota, also a Class D crime punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2000 fine.

In addition to fines and jail time, Banks faces possible one-year administrative suspension of his current license while Holmes faces possible one-year suspension of his right to obtain a dealer license in the future.

“It is a privilege to have an elver license in Maine,” said Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner. “This is one of the most lucrative fisheries we have, and one that has required a great deal of work by the Maine DMR and law abiding members of industry to sustain and manage. I will use the full extent of my authority to investigate and bring to justice anyone who violates laws that help us protect this valuable fishery.”

The Marine Patrol investigation involved eight Marine Patrol Officers including Lieutenant Jay Carroll, Sergeant Russell Wright, Sergeant Rob Beal, Sergeant Matt Talbot, Specialist Matt Sinclair, Officer Brian Brodie, Officer Jon Luellen, and Officer Chris Hilton.  The Marine Patrol seized thirteen and half pounds of elvers from Holmes worth an estimated value of more than $18,000 based on per pound value at the time of the violation.

Dana Wayne-Holmes (Two Bridges Regional Jail)

Dana Wayne-Holmes (Two Bridges Regional Jail)

MAINE: Elver season opens with new laws in place

March 24, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — Maine’s elver fishing season opened at just after midnight on Tuesday morning chilled by the first spring snowfall and the prospect of a weak market.

Many of Maine’s ponds and rivers are ice-free after an exceptionally mild winter and some harvesters had reported seeing elvers — more properly glass eels — moving into fresh water after their long ocean journey from the Sargasso Sea, where the juvenile eels hatched. Until Monday, harvesters had been anticipating an early start to the fishing season.

“There’s been a few eels in the brooks,” Franklin elver harvester Darrell Young said Monday afternoon as he scouted the shore of Hog Bay for a spot to set his fyke net once the season opened at midnight. “Some brooks are as warm or warmer than the ocean. The snow will cool things off. Things will slow down until it warms up.”

Young is one of the founders of the Maine Elver Fishermen Association and one of the leaders in the state’s battles with federal regulators to control the fishery.

While the water will almost certainly grow warmer, longtime elver buyer Bill Sheldon said that the situation in the principal markets for Maine elvers is likely to cast a chill over the price fishermen are paid for their catch.

“The Chinese and Asian economies in general are terrible,” Sheldon said Tuesday morning as he prepared to welcome the harvesters he expected to bring him their first elver landings late that night. “It’s going to reflect on the market for sure, and on the price we’re going to get for our eels.”

Maine elvers, just a tiny segment of the world market, are shipped primarily to farms in China and Taiwan, where they grow for about a year before they are processed into kabayki. Popular throughout much of Asia, the eels are gutted, boned and butterflied, then cut into square fillets that are skewered, dipped in seasoned soy sauce and broiled.

According to Sheldon, the poor economy has cut demand for kabayaki and, consequently, for elvers. Farmers who bought elvers last year are having trouble selling the mature eels they’ve raised.

“Everyone’s cutting back and it’s showing up right now,” he said.

That could be bad news for Maine elver harvesters.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Weather gives fishermen hope for ultra-pricey baby eel catch

PORTLAND, Maine (March 17, 2016) — Maine’s annual rush to catch valuable baby eels prized by expensive restaurants and Asian markets likely will be more successful this year because of warmer weather, fishermen say.

Baby eels cost more at the dock than any other fishery in the state, and are among the most lucrative in the country, sometimes fetching more than $2,000 per pound. Maine has the only significant baby eel fishery in the country, and the season begins Tuesday.

But Maine’s baby eel, or elver, fishermen are coming off a difficult year. Fishermen caught less than 5,300 pounds of the baby eels against a quota of nearly 10,000 in 2015. Many fishermen blamed the slow year on a cold spring, in which the rivers where elvers swim in the spring still were frozen in late March.

Prospects are much better for this year, because rivers are running and temperatures are higher, said Rep. Jeffrey Pierce, a Dresden Republican and adviser to the Maine Elver Fishermen Association.

“There’s every reason to expect everyone will catch their quota,” Pierce said. “Last year at this time we were still snowmobiling on the Kennebec River.”

See the full story from the Associated Press at The Day

Maine May Adjust In-Season Fishing Days for Elvers

SEAFOODNEWS.COM (AP) — January 27, 2016 — Maine fishing regulators are considering changes to the rules governing fishing for baby eels.

Maine’s the only state in the country with a significant fishery for baby eels, called elvers. The elvers are sold to Asian aquaculture companies that raise them and use them as food, including sushi. Maine’s elvers were worth about $875 per pound in 2014, when fishermen caught a little less than 10,000 pounds.

The state Legislature’s marine resources committee is considering changes in the designation of the closed period for elver fishing. It is currently illegal to fish for elvers from noon Friday to noon Sunday during fishing season. A bill would change the closed period to a weekly 48-hour timeframe established before the start of the season.

The committee will consider the bill on Wednesday.

This story from the Associated Press appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.