Canada: Citing poaching, violent incidents, Ottawa says elver fishery won’t open this year

OTTAWA — The federal fisheries minister says the lucrative elver fishery will stay closed for the 2024 season. Diane Lebouthillier says confrontations and incidents of violence have created an “immediate threat” to public safety and management of the fishery. She also cites the need to conserve the American eel. Elvers are very young and translucent eels that migrate up coastal rivers in the Maritimes in the spring, where they can be easily caught in nets or buckets. The government says fisheries officers will enforce the ban and are patrolling rivers, facilities and export points to stop unauthorized harvest, sale and export. Officers arrested five people for unauthorized harvest of elvers last week. Lebouthillier said in a statement Monday that recent years have seen “significant quantities of elvers being fished illegally, jeopardizing the conservation of the species.” Elvers are typically sold live to aquaculture operations in China and Japan, where they are grown for food, ...