Federal fisheries proposal would slash commercial elver quota in 2025

Baby eels, also known as elvers, swim in a tank after being caught in the Penobscot River, Saturday, May 15, 2021, in Brewer, Maine. (Source: THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Robert F. Bukaty)

HALIFAX -

The federal Fisheries Department is proposing new elver quotas for the 2025 season that would significantly cut the share of baby eels fished by existing commercial licence holders.

In a letter obtained by The Canadian Press dated Thursday, the department proposes that 50 per cent of the total allowable catch would go to First Nations fishers.

Meanwhile, another 28 per cent of the quota would go to a pilot project composed of people already in the fishery, leaving nine commercial licence holders with just under 22 per cent of the catch.

According to a table breaking down the quota, commercial licensees stand to lose anywhere between 60 per cent and 90 per cent of the quota they fished before 2022.

Stanley King, a commercial licence holder in Nova Scotia, says the proposed allocations will only cause more chaos in a lucrative fishery that was shut down last year because of violence and unauthorized fishing.

King says the pilot project in particular makes no sense because it redistributes quota among employees working for companies such as his own.

Under the proposed pilot allocation, the federal department is offering 120 fishers currently employed by commercial licence holders their own licences to fish 27 per cent of the overall quota. A further 1.5 per cent is allocated in licences offered to 30 fishers who currently catch adult eels.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2024.