DFO makes elvers arrests
2024 juvenile American eel season officially closed
Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced Monday that it had arrested five people and seized two vehicles, nets and 1.14 kilograms of juvenile American eels (elvers) in relation to illegal fishing on South Shore rivers.
All five were released without charge pending further investigation by DFO.
“Fishery officers are patrolling rivers, facilities and export points to deter and disrupt unauthorized elver harvest, sale and export from the region,” reads a written statement from DFO.
“Fishery officers also continue to work with other law enforcement agencies to combat the illegal harvest, sale and export of elver as well as threats to public safety and criminal activity.
“Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) reminds all harvesters that unauthorized fishing and violence will not be tolerated, as this undermines sustainable fisheries management in Canada.”
The announcement came the same day that Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier confirmed that she will not allow the commercial elver fishery to occur in 2024 due to concerns around illegal fishing and violence that have plagued the fishery in recent years.
“As you know, over the last few years we have unfortunately seen a pattern of increasing and very serious challenges in the elver fishery, including significant quantities of elvers being fished illegally, jeopardizing the conservation of the species,” reads a written statement issued Monday evening by Lebouthillier.
“The fishery has also become the focus of harassment, threats and violence between harvesters and toward fishery officers, with a number of confrontations and incidents of violence creating an immediate threat to the management of the fishery and public safety. This undermines international and domestic efforts to sustainably manage elver fisheries.”
The decision came two weeks after Lebouthillier sent letters to the eight commercial and three First Nations licence holders stating her intention to close the fishery but asking for their opinions on it.
Both groups opposed the move.
The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs issued a statement saying that they had sent DFO a proposal laying out their required quota, expected participation levels, river designations and the federal government’s treaty rights obligations.
“Clearly, DFO had no intentions of working in good faith with the Mi’kmaq on the elver fishery,” said Chief Gerald Toney, fisheries co-lead for the assembly, in a written statement.
“We provided them with a proposal that reflects our inherent rights as Mi’kmaq and included actions for promoting responsible resource management. (Monday’s) announcement by Minister Lebouthillier shows a lack of accountability from her department, (Conservation and Protection) and their requirements to work with the Mi’kmaq to create solutions for the fishery to continue.”
PROPOSALS DEEMED UNWORKABLE
Commercial licence holders claim they presented DFO a proposal to save the 2024 season that would have included them paying for and voluntarily submitting to a traceability system for their catch, decreasing the number of rivers they fish and limiting the gear they use.
The closure will put some 200 commercial harvesters and their employees, along with an estimated 800 First Nations members who fish their community’s quotas, out of work.
In a Monday letter to commercial harvesters, DFO regional director general Doug Wentzell acknowledged their proposals but said they would not be workable for this season as new regulations would need to be put in place to make traceability mandatory and create laws around the possession, transport and sale of elvers along the supply chain.
“However, the fundamental structure of the industry includes holding facilities, wholesalers and other intermediaries in the export supply chain,” wrote Wentzell in the letter obtained by The Chronicle Herald.
“As such, conditions of fishing licences are insufficient to establish effective regulatory control over possession and export activities. Addressing this gap requires regulations applicable to the different actors along the export pathway. This is core to what is being pursued in new regulations, which cannot be implemented in time for the 2024 season.”
Commercial licence holders claim they have been asking DFO for a traceability system and a regulatory regime to prevent the sale and transport of illegally caught elvers for seven years.
According to data from the Government of Hong Kong, seven times the amount of elvers that were caught legally in Canada in 2023 were imported to that country labelled as Canadian elvers.
Neither the Canada Border Services Agency nor the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found or stopped the shipment of a single elver in 2023.