Elvers net nearly $40M, 2nd only to lobster
After a season of record-breaking prices for baby eels – called elvers – the state's earliest estimates peg the fishery's take at around $40 million. That projection, five times higher than last year's take, would make the 10-week elver season the second most valuable fishery in the state after lobster, which nets around $335 million, according to the Bangor Daily News.
Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the state's Department of Marine Resources, told a regional eel board that elver sales are expected to top $40 million for the 2012 season, the BDN reported.
The increase in prices this year – hitting around $2,600 per pound by the season's end – was driven largely by increased demand in Asia, especially in Japan where an earlier tsunami took out many of the region's fishing fleets.
With reports from only 75% of Maine's licensed elver dealers and no audits on those reports completed, officials told the BDN that projections about a final tally are still speculative but that the final number could be as high as $50 million.
The BDN also reported that the fishery is currently under federal scrutiny and that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is considering a petition by the Center for Environmental Science, Advocacy and Reliability to list elvers under the Endangered Species Act, which could shut down the fishery altogether.
Federal officials told the paper that a review of that petition is under way but did not indicate when that review of the species might be completed.
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