Canada: Nova Scotia elver fisher says early signs of improved enforcement of fishery

Published 2024년 4월 25일

Tridge summary

The Canadian Fisheries Department has made a significant crackdown on illegal fishing activities, particularly targeting elvers, following the closure of the baby eel fishery in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick due to violence and intimidation. This crackdown, which has seen the arrest of 95 people, seizure of 21 vehicles, and 73.6 kilograms of elvers, among other things, is seen as a positive step by local commercial fishers who have criticized the government's previous leniency towards poaching. However, concerns persist about the potential rise in unauthorized fishing as the elver population increases and migratory patterns improve. The article also highlights the challenge of illegal fishing from Maine, where lax Canadian enforcement has attracted poachers. A proposed new licensing system in Canada aims to combat this by tracking elvers from catch to export, while the Canada Border Services Agency has not yet intercepted any packages containing illegally caught elvers this year.

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Original content

HALIFAX — A string of recent arrests for illegal fishing is an early sign the federal government has increased enforcement since it closed the baby eel fishery, says one Nova Scotia commercial fisher. Stanley King, of Atlantic Elver Fishery, reacted Thursday to news that the federal Fisheries Department arrested five people from Maine for illegal fishing in the Meteghan, N.S., area of Digby County last weekend. Department officials have “upped their game,” said King, who has been among the commercial fishers who have criticized the federal government in recent years for what they said was a soft approach to poaching. But he cautioned that cases of unauthorized fishing could still rise as the population of the tiny fish known as elvers increases through the spring with more favourable coastal tides and warmer waters. Due to what it said was violence and intimidation on the water in the lucrative elver industry, Ottawa closed the 2024 commercial fishing season on March 11 in Nova ...

Source: Timescolonist