In Canada, poached elvers are still getting exported despite DFO busts and closed season

Even as DFO has begun arresting illegal elver harvesters, the baby eels are still leaving Canadian airports under the federal government’s nose enroute to markets in Asia. Late Saturday night, Fisheries and Oceans Canada officers arrested five more people for illegally fishing elvers in the Meteghan area. They seized a vehicle used by the five, all residents of Maine, 3.448 kilograms of elvers, a vehicle and fishing gear. According to a written statement, they seized another 13.5 kilograms the same night caught by others, though there is no word on whether charges will be laid in relation to that seizure. All the elvers were returned alive to the river. So far this year, 95 people have been arrested, and 21 vehicles and 73.6 kilograms of elvers seized by DFO officers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. DFO did not say how many of those arrested have been charged or whether the Public Prosecution Service of Canada is prosecuting them. ‘Why do I have to lose my job?’ “I think it’s ...