Elver quota set for 2018 season
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. This year, Maine elver harvesters caught 9,282 pounds of baby eels this season, with a reported value of $12.09 million.
The American Eel Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has set a quota of 9,688 pounds of elvers for Maine harvesters during the 2018 fishing season.
The Ellsworth American reported it’s the same quota the fishery has operated under for the past three years. The ASMFC established a quota for the fishery for the first time in 2014.
In 2017, Maine harvesters landed 9,282 pounds of baby eels this season, with a reported value of $12.09 million and an average price per pound of $1,302. The value of the harvest was more than $1 million less than $13.45 million in 2016, when harvesters were paid an average price of $1,431 per pound for 9,400 pounds of elvers. The highest value reported in the last five years was $40.38 million in 2012 for 21,611 pounds of elvers and a per-pound price of $1,868.
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