Canada proposes shutdown of troubled Maritime elver fishery in 2024
CBC
The federal government has served notice it intends to close the commercial fishery for baby eels, or elvers, in the Maritimes this year — six weeks before the season is set to open.
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Diane Lebouthillier informed licence holders Tuesday and gave them until Feb. 23 to respond.
The tiny translucent eels are trapped in the spring in Maritime rivers and shipped live to Asia where they are grown for food. They are a lucrative catch that can sell for up to $5,000 a kilogram.
In a Feb. 13 letter obtained by CBC News, Lebouthillier referred to the violence, threats and widespread unauthorized harvesting that has characterized the fishery in recent years.
Lebouthillier said there was not enough time for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to implement enhanced "access for Indigenous communities, a new regulatory framework to regulate and licence the possession and export of elvers, and a suite of operational changes to the management of the elver fishery."
"Based on all the above, it is my view that it is not possible to have a safe and sustainable elver fishery in 2024, and therefore the fishery should not be opened," Lebouthillier wrote.
In a statement, Genna Carey of the Canadian Committee for a Sustainable Eel Fishery (CCSEF ) responded on behalf of several of the eight commercial licence holders.
"Preventing legal fishers from doing their jobs will have almost no effect on poachers or Chinese buyers. They will still be there illegally harvesting elvers. In some ways their jobs will be easier without legal fishers watching what they're doing," said Carey.
"CCSEF has been begging DFO for more than two years to take serious steps to address the issues in the fishery. We participated in their sham review and even offered to pay for a traceability system, all to end up losing our livelihoods for our trouble."
Last year, hundreds of unauthorized fishers flooded to rivers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick eager to cash in. Many were Indigenous harvesters claiming they were exercising their treaty rights to fish and did not require government approval.
Then-minister Joyce Murray shut down the commercial fishery — which includes authorized Indigenous harvesters — two weeks into the season.
But widespread poaching continued, angering commercial licence holders who were shut out of the fishery, but observed continued unlicensed fishing. They said federal enforcement was grossly inadequate, allowing chaotic nighttime scenes of harvesters threatening violence against enforcement officers, which Lebouthillier acknowledged in Tuesday's letter.
On Tuesday, the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs reacted angrily to DFO's intentions. In a statement, the assembly said eight First Nations in Nova Scotia submitted a proposal to the fisheries minister in December outlining what they wanted in the upcoming season.
Hello, royal watchers. This is your regular dose of royal news and analysis. Reading this online? Sign up here to get this delivered to your inbox.
It's snack time in the barn, and Seamus fills his droopy belly.
Sault Ste. Marie city council will consider a motion at its Monday meeting to look into blocking the Chinese AI chatbot, DeepSeek, from city devices and networks.
Darlene Naugle had difficulties getting around the small community of Port Bickerton on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore when she moved to area from Alberta three years ago to care for her sick daughter.
Skates and hockey sticks on backyard rinks are the definitive sound of winter for many Canadians.
Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Wally Daudrich doesn't seem to mind that some Tories might think his claim Manitoba schools are promoting acts of bestiality and incest is impossible to believe.
Artificial intelligence has become increasingly present in people's lives, ranging from the ability to create a generative image in a messages with simple prompts, to using data to reduce workplace injuries.
While Trump's tariffs, housing and health care have received plenty of attention during the Ontario election campaign, educators say voters should pay more attention to where the major parties stand on the province's public school system.
As the Canadian Armed Forces continue to try and dig out of a deep recruitment hole, they're starting to give new recruits with medical conditions a shot at joining the military rather than automatically turning them away.
Israel says the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners is delayed "until the release of the next hostages is assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies" at handovers of Israeli captives in Gaza.
Crystal Ellingsen and Jennifer Brady thought their battle with the government of Nova Scotia ended last year, but now they're raising their voices once again to continue the fight.
Ryan Evans of Oromocto, N.B., says he knows how lucky he is.