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Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) plans to crack down on the illegal fishery for baby eels, also known as elvers, in the Maritimes next year by creating separate possession-and-export licences to track the catch from river to airport.
The legal fishery was shut down on April 15 but the black market is still driving widespread poaching on rivers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Baby eels, called elvers, are the most lucrative fishery in Canada by weight.
An influx of unauthorized elver harvesters prompted Nova Scotia Power to shut down one of its hydro dams last month, and the facility remains on reduced hours because of ongoing illegal fishing at the site.
Efforts by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to combat unauthorized harvesting of baby eels in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are being dismissed as inadequate by licence holders, as poaching continues weeks after the legal fishery was shut down.
Images of active fishing — some as recent as Sunday night — were provided to CBC News and the federal government by a frustrated commercial elver licence holder.