The state has made good on its plans to crack down on illegal fishing for elvers. More violators have been caught and they’ve been getting stiffer penalties in court.

Also called glass eels, the tiny eels have increased in value to more than $2,000 per pound in recent years due to reduced eel populations in European countries and high demand in Asia.

Spawned in the Sargasso Sea, the eels migrate up the Eastern Seaboard to coastal freshwater rivers and lakes, where they feed and grow.

After they are harvested in tidal rivers along the coast of Maine, they are shipped to farmers in Japan, China and Korea who grow them in tanks as a specialty food. The dealers favor elvers because they have not begun to feed, and do not foul the water during transport. Many more elvers survive the trip around the world than would adult eels.

Maine is one of only two states on the eastern seaboard that permit elver fishing, and strict limits on the number of licenses combined with high prices led to an increase in illegal harvesting. For the last few years, state authorities have said they are working to crack down on elver poaching.

Several Lincoln County residents have been fined for illegal elver fishing this season. From June 18 to July 20, fines were issued in 19 elver harvesting cases in Wiscasset District Court and many of this year's alleged violators have yet to see a courtroom. Most will pay up to $2,000 for fishing without a license.

Statewide, 297 summonses were issued and 143 of them were for fishing without a license, according to Lt. Jon Cornish of the Maine Marine Patrol. The Marine Patrol spent about 50 percent of their time on elver-related enforcement this year. They spent about three times as much money enforcing elver rules as they did last year.

“The price was definitely the catalyst for this activity,” Cornish said.

The highest price paid this year was $2,600 per pound, according to Deirdre Gilbert, director of Marine Policy at the Department of Marine Resources. In Maine, that translates to a multi-million-dollar industry.

The price for glass eels has skyrocketed in the past two years. In 2010, the fishery’s value to Maine was $584,000. In 2011, that jumped to $7.6 million. At that time, harvesters were making less than $1,000 per pound.

The department does not yet know how many eels were caught this season, as not all legal landings have been reported and tallied. Gilbert said it is very likely landings increased this year.

Only those who held an elver license the previous year are eligible to apply for a license. The state issued 407 licenses this year.

The lottery

A lottery system to allow more elver licenses to be sold is slated for next fishing season. However, some question whether the season will come at all. The eels are up for consideration for classification as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

A lottery system with a cap on total licenses was established in 2000, allowing new licenses to be sold to replace those that had been relinquished. The legislature closed the lottery system in 2006.

According to the new legislation, the re-instated lottery will be held on or before Jan. 31, 2013, and in each subsequent calendar year.

Along with re-instating the lottery, a number of changes were made to the elver fishing industry. The new law increases the number of licenses allowed to 600, increases license fees, increases the number of allowable nets for residents to three, increases the fine for elver gear molestation and changes the season dates.

Lottery applications must be completed with a non-refundable $25 fee no later than Jan. 15.

Gilbert said they won’t know the number of available licenses until the end of this year. The rules for administering the elver lottery will be adopted this fall.

American eel fishery 'depleted'

It is difficult to determine the health of the fishery based on landings information alone, Gilbert said. Her department also works with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (www.asmfc.org), which has gathered other data to make a stock assessment of the fishery as a whole.

According to their findings, the overall American eel fishery is depleted. The commission recommends management efforts to reduce mortality of the eel.

A March 2012 report from the Commission's Eel Technical Committee and Stock Assessment Subcommittee states that current levels of fishing may still be too high. It also mentions other stress factors that weigh on eel mortality, such as habitat loss, passage mortality, disease and potential shifting of oceanographic conditions.

Is the American eel 'threatened'?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is nearing the end of a 12-month status review to determine if the American Eel should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. A preliminary 90-day finding last September showed that there was “substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing the American Eel throughout its entire range may be warranted.”

That finding led to the 12-month status review. A determination is expected this fall.

Gilbert understands a lot of people are anxious about the Endangered Species Act listing decision. Conservationists are concerned about the overall health of the species, while there is also concern about the loss of millions of dollars in revenue.

Maine is a member of the Fisheries Commission and, like all other states along the eastern seaboard, agreed to an American Eel Fisheries Management Plan designed to “protect the American eel resource to ensure ecological stability while providing for sustainable fisheries.”

The plan prohibits the taking of eels smaller than 6 inches; Maine and South Carolina are exempt from this rule. They are the only two states that maintain glass eel fishing seasons. According to Gilbert, the fishery in South Carolina is much more restricted.

The commission is scheduled to meet next month and will discuss elvers. Gilbert said officials in other states are concerned about elver fishing in Maine.

“The problem is elver fishing in Maine creates a black market in other states,” Gilbert said.

Maine license holders could risk getting caught for elver fishing in other states and selling their catch back in Maine; this adds to law enforcement costs in the other states and jeopardizes accurate landings information in Maine.