When the price of elvers reached $2,000 a pound in March, word spread fast. Everyone who could fish for elvers did, including members of the Passamaquoddy tribe who fish with tribe-issued permits rather than the tightly restricted permits issued by the state.
Elvers are juvenile American eel, referred to as glass eels. A catadromous fish, they live in fresh water and breed at sea. During spring migration, these tiny eels are caught in nets along the edges of rivers. Other regions of the world host their own species of eel, but in Asia, where the appetite for eel has outstripped supply, elvers are in high demand.
According to Mitchell Feigenbaum of Delaware Valley Fish Company, the largest U.S. exporter of eels, “Maine eels are shipped by Air to Asian countries where they are raised by aquaculturists in large outdoor ponds for the food trade.”
Maine and South Carolina are the only states with an elver fishery. South Carolina oversees 10 licenses; Maine’s Department of Marine Resources (DMR) manages 407; and Maine’s Native American tribes can issue a varied number of their own.
Randy Bushey of Bushey Enterprises in Steuben is an elver fisherman and a dealer. He reads from the top of his opening day ledger, “Nineteen and a half, twenty-five and three quarters, eight point seven” and continues listing the poundage he bought from fishermen on the Union River. “I ran out of money. $240,000 in less than an hour.” There have been years when the eels were few and the market poor. “It runs in cycles and this is a good year,” said Bushey, who helped draft the eel management plan for the Department of Marine Fisheries (DMR).
In response to the boom in the fishery, the Passamaquoddy tribe issued a record number of elver permits for its members. Fred Moore III was Passamaquoddy tribal representative to the state legislature in the 1990s and was instrumental in establishing a statute that supports native fishing rights. This statute allows the tribe to grant their own licenses and gear permits. “I want to reconstitute a tribal fishing economy. It is our right, unlimited, forever,” said Moore from the St. Croix River where he is tending his fyke net (stationary funnel-shaped gear).
“We have always relied on our resources for the well-being of our people. Of course when a product is in high demand, the requests for licenses will increase,” said the current Passamaquoddy tribal representative, Madonna Socktomah. At the end of April, the Joint Passamaquody Tribal Council met and voted to consider new applications.
“When this authority (for native fishing rights in the 1990s) was granted, the elver fishery did not have a limited entry as is does today, so there was no cap placed on number of licenses for the Passamaquoddy Tribe,” explains Deirdre Gilbert, DMR Director of Marine Policy.
Once news broke of the issuing of over 200 new Passamaquoddy licenses, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher began receiving calls from his constituents. “This is extremely concerning; the industry is up in arms,” he said.
On May 4, Keliher met with several members of the tribe including the chiefs from both Passamaquoddy reservations. Keliher says, “I expressed my concerns over effort and the ramifications of this type of activity on the future. The result was an agreement from the tribe not to issue any more permits.” He added, “they are working within the letter of the law and, at this point, it is not at the level of jeopardizing the resource.”
Moore attended the meeting and reported. “There was an acknowledgment of our respective roles and responsibilities. Let’s find out how we can work together.” For now, according to Moore, most new license holders are “only using dip nets and getting about .05 pounds a night.” Tribal members are required to abide by all DMR regulations. “We do believe in a level playing field,” said Moore. About concern of additional effort on the resource, he added “If they are endangered, we are endangered. We would respect a listing.”
The fear of shutting down the elver fishery has been surfacing every few years as attempts are made to list the species as endangered. U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFW) is presently reviewing studies and reports including the recent Benchmark Assessment from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) that finds the American eel stock depleted. “Depleted does not mean overfished” according to Keliher, but adds he cannot be sure of the USFW finding on status that should be made this fall. He explained that besides the ASMFC report, USFW will be looking at all factors affecting the species including habitat degradation, threats from hydro power, water quality and disease.
Leslie Bowman is a freelance contributor living in Trescott.