Handful of lucky Mainers win right to apply for lucrative elver licenses
FILE PHOTO / DAVID CLOUGH
Patricia and Paul Bryant, involved in the elver fishery since the 1970s, tend their nets during a dawn trip to favorable river spots in Bristol in this Mainebiz file photo. Last year, Maine elver harvesters caught 9,282 pounds of baby eels this season, with a reported value of $12.09 million.
In the first lottery since 2013 in the lucrative elver fishery, the Maine Department of Marine Resources awarded the right to apply for an elver license to 11 Mainers. 3,136 people applied for the licenses.
The lottery, authorized during the past legislative session, was available to Maine residents who are at least 15 years of age by the start of the 2018 season, and who are eligible to purchase an elver license in 2018 because they have not had their right to obtain an elver license suspended.
Each new license holder will receive a minimum of four pounds of quota, which at the most recent season’s average value could amount to nearly $6,000 of income. They will each be authorized to choose either a dip net or a fyke net for harvesting.
The overall quota for the 2018 season, established by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, remains at 9,688 pounds. Quota for the new license holders comes from licenses that were not renewed in 2017 and thus became available for redistribution to license holders.
The winners have until March 1 to apply for a license. This year’s elver season begins at noon on March 22 and goes until noon on June 7.
2017’s elver harvest topped $12 million. Harvesters caught 9,282 pounds of baby eels, with an average price per pound of $1,302.
The harvest came in 334 pounds short of the season's quota of 9,616 pounds. The baby eels have been worth more in past years; in 2016, harvesters were paid an average price of $1,431 per pound.
The highest value reported in the last five years was $1,868, in 2012, for a total value of $40.38 million for 21,611 pounds.
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