Licensed elver fishermen in Atlantic Canada have been told the Canadian government will take up to 75% of their quotas in 2025 without compensation for redistribution, SaltWire News reports. 

The commercial fishermen who harvest juvenile American eels from rivers in the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick received a letter from Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) on Tuesday (Oct. 15) detailing a proposed pilot project that would begin with the spring elver run in 2025 and possibly continue until 2027.

"Quota redistribution for pilot participants is proposed without fishing pressure on the stock, and redistribution would not be accompanied by financial assistance or compensation to existing license holders," reads the DFO letter, which was obtained by SaltWire.

Recall that Canadian fisheries minister Diane Lebouthillier shut down the commercial elver fishery in 2024 because of rampant illegal fishing, as reported by Undercurrent News.

Though the combined elver quota for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is small, around 9,860 kilograms annually since 2006, the value of the catch has been sky-high in recent years, ranging from CAD 3,000 ($2,225)/kg to CAD 5,000/kg in the past decade.

However, the high prices for elvers have brought poachers to the rivers in both provinces. Along with that has come dangerous confrontations and evidence of organized crime, as previously reported by Undercurrent.

Commercial license holders were told this spring that 50% of the 9,960 kg commercial quota would go to First Nations. If DFO goes ahead with its latest proposal, another 20 to 25% of the elver quota will be distributed among 150 new entrants.

The DFO proposal does not sit well with the licensed operators.

"This is a misguided attempt to level the playing field," Stanley King, spokesperson for the group Canadian Committee for a Sustainable Elver Fishery, was quoted by SaltWire.

"Businesses will be lucky to survive," King said.

Currently, nine businesses in the Maritimes hold commercial licenses to harvest juvenile American eels. Those companies employ about 200 people to fish the rivers to collect the valuable elvers. They are primarily sold to China, where they are grown in aquaculture facilities to supply the sushi market.