AUGUSTA, Maine - An up and down elver fishing season came to a close this past weekend. Demand for glass eels on the Asian market continued to be strong this spring.
But Maine fishermen ended up catching a little over 4,500 pounds of elvers - a little less than half of the overall quota for the fishery. Jeff Nichols, with the Department of Marine Resources, says conditions weren't ideal when the season began in late March.
"We had a very cold spring, which depresses the landings in the rivers and streams," Nichols says. "It was a very dry spring. When it's a dry season, they'll swim up the middle of rivers and steams." More elvers are typically caught closer to shore with dip and fyke nets.
The low supply in Maine did have its benefits for fishermen who managed to catch most of their individual quota: Nichols says the overall catch was $3 million higher than it was a year ago, with prices soaring to more than $2,100 a pound.
