PORTLAND (AP) — Maine’s elver catch this year fell by more than 40 percent, failing to reach a quota first instituted this year, according to preliminary data released by the state Tuesday.
Maine fishermen caught about 10,100 pounds of the baby eels during the eightweek season against a quota of 11,749 pounds, the state Department of Marine Resources said in a statement. Early estimates show the value of elvers dropping from more than $1,800 per pound to between $600 and $1,000 per pound, said a department spokesman and industry officials.
“We could have had a better price,” said Jeffrey Pierce, director of the Maine Elver Fishermen’s Association. “Forty percent is a pretty brutal cut.”
The baby eels are caught in rivers and sold overseas to aquaculture companies in Asia that raise them to maturity and sell them for food. The state’s elver fishermen’s catch topped 18,000 pounds and $32 million in value for each of the past two years.
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