In Maine, Netting for Tiny Eels & Big Profits

[Soundbounder]

The next two months will bring sleepless nights and high anxiety — and quite possibly an extraordinary windfall — for a small universe of people in Maine. They are the lucky few with licenses to catch elvers — young, tiny eels that look like cellophane noodles and by some accounts are fetching up to $2,200 per pound this spring.

Elvers are a hot commodity in Asia, where aquaculture farms grow them to adult size and sell them for sushi and other food. They are believed to spawn in the Sargasso Sea and drift on currents to Maine, where they make their way to fresh water and, from March 22 through May 31, into the waiting nets of some 400 elver fishermen. The action takes place overnight, when elvers are most active.

Maine is one of only two states, along with South Carolina, where elver fishing is still allowed. And with Asian demand especially high — last year’s tsunami curbed supply in Japan, and Europe has cracked down on exporting eels — a gold rush of sorts is on along the rivers and streams of coastal Maine. Since the season began last week, stories have abounded of people making a small fortune in an often hard-luck state.

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/us...ts.html?src=tp

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[Soundbounder]

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[Soundbounder]

Legislature Takes Aim at Eel Poaching As Prices Soar

The most lucrative fishery in Maine right now isn't lobster, or scallops, or urchin roe, its the juvenile eel, or "elver" fishery. Fueled by demand from the Far East, the price per pound has soared over the past two years, and the going rate this season has topped over $2,000 per pound. But these prices also create a powerful incentive for poaching. A bill approved by the Maine House of Representatives today aims to put a dent in illegal elver fishing, while paving the way for a few legal fishermen to get in on the game.

Maine Public Radio
http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ct...9/Default.aspx

[Willin']

Looks like what was called Whitebait when I lived in NZ. Used to get a nice helping in a restaurant for about $5.00 Kiwi back then.

[skuthorp]

Glass eels Willin', Had them in the UK once.

[Robert Meyer]

A biology teacher I taught with lived on the coastal section of the Altamaha River. Every morning he would empty his eel traps, pack the eels in ice and air express them to France. He finally quit teaching as he was making way more money with his eel business.
In 1770, Oliver Goldsmith referred to the Altamaha River in The Deserted Village (ll. 343 - 358):
I don't believe Oliver cared for the South much.

"Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,
Where wild Altamaha murmurs to their woe.Far different there from all that charm'd before,The various terrors of that horrid shore;Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray,And fiercely shed intolerable day;Those matted woods where birds forget to sing,But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling;Those poisonous fields, with rank luxuriance crown'd,Where the dark scorpion gathers death around;Where at each step the stranger fears to wakeThe rattling terrors of the vengeful snake;Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey,And savage men more murderous still than they:While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,Mingling the ravag'd landscape with the skies."

[skuthorp]

American Eel

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In the unlikely event that someone would catch an American eel (Anguilla rostrata), they might not know what this odd-looking creature was! They are a brown color on top and a yellowish-tan on the sides. They have a long, snake-like body with a fish's mouth and jaws and very small gill openings. A good way of identifying them is the continuous dorsal, caudal and anal fin. It is somewhat nocturnal, feeding mostly at night and relying on its sense of smell rather than sight.
Of all of Ohio's fishes, the American eel travels the farthest to spawn. Eels are catadromous, spawning in saltwater and maturing in freshwater. To breed, eels travel to the Atlantic Ocean's Sargasso Sea, a huge mass of floating vegetation. Scientists believe that the males and females die shortly after spawning. Females may lay over 2.5 million eggs. When the larvae are born, they are worm-like and transparent. These "glass eels" then begin a trip to the United States growing into elvers along the way. Once they reach the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, the males will remain in nearby rivers. The females will continue on and, using tributary streams, arrive at the Great Lakes and then into Ohio waters. This journey may take up to a year.
Male eels will grow to approximately eighteen inches; females can reach up to fifty-two inches in body length. They are omnivores, eating fish, invertebrates, and carrion.
Eels are commercially caught or farm raised and sold for food. The price for elvers can reach up to $300 per pound in Asia. However, the demand for eels as food in the Midwest is not high.
Scientists believe that American eels did not live in Lake Erie until the completion of the Welland Canal in 1829. In 1882, the Ohio Fish Commission (the predecessor to The Ohio Department of Natural Resources) released 128,100 elvers throughout Ohio. This practice continued for approximately 10 years.
Between 1895 and 1910, eels were common, even in central Ohio. During that time fishermen and "eelers" caught many of them. In Fishes of Ohio, Ohio zoology professor Milton B. Trautman (1899-1991) reported that "Cameron King told me that his father and he caught one or two bushels of eels daily during 1902 in Maumee Bay,?." The American eel is a threatened species in Ohio and numbers are beginning to decline throughout the United States due to commercial fishing and the increase in the number of dams and other man-made barriers being built. These barriers prevent the eels from going to or from their spawning grounds.

[Thad]

The other day there was an article I saw, maybe in the NY Times, about catches being smaller and smaller, eliminating bottom of the food chain species. I read this in that light along, with krill and other plankton.

[Chip-skiff]

Looks like what was called Whitebait when I lived in NZ. Used to get a nice helping in a restaurant for about $5.00 Kiwi back then.

I had whitebait many times, most often in an egg fritter. Also dipped in tempura batter and fried crisp. Seems like they were more often on cafe menus on the west coast of South Island, especially in Hokitika. Not bad. I met several fellows who were keen on catching whitebait, which can be had for a fairly short time when the tiny fish (galaxids, not eels) are migrating up into the freshwater streams from the sea.

Here's a link with info for NZ and other places:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitebait

[Breakaway]

these might be called white bait, but round here they are generall known as glass eels


White bait, again here in the NE US, usually means spearing (aka, silver sides) or sand eels (aka sand launce)

Spearing


Sandeel


Working the shore with a 10-foot fine seine, two people can easily catch enough spearing for bait, or frying, in a few minutes. Kids love doing it, and its hard not to see at least some at it on any given day in the summer.

Sandeels are tougher to catch. In shallow water a shoal of them will appear beneath the boat, or before you while wading. It seems like you are floating in them they are so thick. Then, in a flash, like a flock of birds ( or a school of fish ) they disapeear under the sand like magic. Take another two steps and you roust them; another and they are "gone" again.

kevin

[Boater14]

Stripers eat them and so do blues. Gee, I wonder why every other state on the east coast outlaws any taking of elvers? Let's call in an marine biologist with a phd to dope that out for us. While he's at it maybe he can tell us where the cod went or the brookies in the adirondacks.

[Willin']

I've been watching for any sign of elvering on the Kennebec, but so far no dice. Alewives are just beginning to run so most of the fish ladders are occupied by the alewife dealers.

There are several guys that trap mature eels on the Kennebec in the summer, but they're targeting the striper and bluefish fishermen. That's been a tough market the past 2 or 3 summers. Oddly, no one seems interested in selling unagi to the local sushi restaurants.