Don’t penalize lawful elver fishers
Open, enforce sustainable fishery
The elver fishery in the Maritime provinces has long been a cornerstone of the regional economy, providing sustainable livelihoods for hundreds of women and men.
Yet in recent years, the fishery has been undermined by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) permitting illegal harvesting and transnational organized crime syndicates to threaten both the resource and the local community.
Historically, the elver fishery thrived under stringent regulations and the careful watch of DFO. Commercial licence holders respected quotas and funded scientific research to ensure sustainability of the resource. However, for the past four seasons, DFO’S oversight of the fishery has weakened, enforcement has vanished and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing has been ignored.
DFO’S lack of enforcement allowed the problem to grow year over year and has exposed legal fishers to violence, intimidation and threats to their personal safety.
Yet the bewildering response from DFO, despite hundreds of warnings from commercial licence holders that increased enforcement was required, was to prematurely shut down the legal fishery in 2023 after just 18 days. This abrupt decision left 1,100 fishers and their families without an annual income but did nothing to halt illegal harvesting, which continued nightly for months afterward.
The inaction of DFO has damaged plenty. Federal authorities have failed not only to protect a precious natural resource but also the legal elver harvesters and their families who depend on the fishery for their livelihood. Instead of curbing illegal activities, DFO closing the fishery unwittingly supported illegal harvesters in 2023, including a network of transnational organized criminals, emboldened by the lack of any consequence for operating outside the law in Canada.
Since the closure of the 2023 season, commercial licence holders pressed DFO to affirm its commitment to law enforcement and the protection of legitimate fishers. Yet despite 12 months of pleading, the appearance of the deputy minister before an emergency Parliamentary committee hearing, held to examine DFO’S plan to prevent violence during the 2024 season, offered solutions that would only exacerbate the chaos.
Just hours before the deputy minister appeared before the committee, the minister of fisheries and oceans proposed to not open the fishery this season.
(In a statement Monday confirming the closure, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Diane Lebouthillier said “it is clear that without significant changes, the risks to conservation of the species cannot be addressed and orderly management of the fishery cannot be restored.”)
Like the previous closure, this will fail because of the same lack of enforcement. It will only keep lawful fishers off the rivers while poachers operate unafraid of any consequences. Instead of punishing law-abiding fishers, many of whom pioneered the industry, DFO must take a stand against the illicit trade that thrives on violence and exploitation.
The decision whether to open the fishery is a test of Canadian values. The path chosen by the minister will have lasting implications for the integrity of the fishery, the preservation of natural resources, the security of the fishing community and Canada’s reputation on the world stage.
Commercial licence holders implore the minister to reconsider not opening the elver fishery season. Instead, the government must commit to a robust enforcement strategy that combats the criminal activities that have recently plagued the fishery, and to working with legal fishermen on near-term solutions that can temporarily support the industry while permanent solutions are developed for next season.
All legal harvesters support protecting the resource and the livelihoods of more than a thousand Maritime Canadians. Upholding the integrity of our fisheries and the communities they sustain calls for decisive action against illegal exploits, not the indiscriminate penalization of those who abide by the law.