The fishing season for child eels is ready to start at midnight within the Maritimes, however not less than one First Nation says it received’t abide by federal guidelines that restrict the profitable catch.
In a March 5 letter, Chief Bob Gloade of Millbrook First Nation informed the federal Fisheries Division his group received’t use Ottawa’s lately developed smartphone app to log fishers’ harvests — and doesn’t acknowledge Ottawa’s jurisdiction to supervise the fishery.
Canadian child eels — also called elvers — are fished in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Maine and shipped dwell to Asia, the place they’re grown to maturity.
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After a number of chaotic and typically violent fishing seasons, Ottawa developed an utility that permits enforcement officers to watch the catch of juvenile eels from the purpose they’re caught till they’re despatched to frame crossings.
Nevertheless, Gloade says the Millbrook fishers received’t use the app, and cites a 1999 Supreme Courtroom of Canada resolution that permits for Mi’kmaq communities to earn a reasonable livelihood from fishing.
That courtroom resolution, nonetheless, additionally says Ottawa has the correct to control fisheries for conservation functions, however Gloade says his group will run its personal regulatory system as a result of it believes the elver inventory is wholesome.
The federal administration plan for the 2025 elver season allotted 50 per cent of the 9,960-kilogram whole catch to new entrants from First Nations, shifting quota away from non-Indigenous, business licence holders.
The regulated elver fishery wasn’t opened final yr, with the federal minister citing violence and unlicensed harvesting on the rivers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed March 21, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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