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They\u2019re wriggly, they\u2019re gross and they\u2019re worth more than $2,000 a pound. And soon, fishermen might be able to catch thousands of pounds of them for years to come.<\/p>\n
Baby eels, also called elvers, are likely the most valuable fish in the United States on a per-pound basis \u2013 worth orders of magnitude more money at the docks than lobsters, scallops or salmon. That\u2019s because they\u2019re\u00a0vitally important to the worldwide<\/a>\u00a0supply chain for Japanese food.<\/p>\n The tiny fish, which weigh only a few grams, are harvested by fishermen using nets in rivers and streams. The only state in the country with a significant elver catch is Maine, where fishermen have voiced concerns in recent months about the possibility of a cut to the fishery\u2019s strict quota system.<\/p>\n But an interstate regulatory board that controls the fishery has released a plan to potentially keep the elver quota at its current level of a little less than 10,000 pounds a year with no sunset date. Fishermen who have spent years touting the sustainability of the fishery are pulling for approval, said Darrell Young, a director of the Maine Elver Fishermen Association.<\/p>\n \u201cJust let \u2018er go and let us fish,\u201d Young said. \u201cThey should do that because we\u2019ve done everything they\u2019ve asked, above and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n A board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to\u00a0vote on a new quota system<\/a>\u00a0for the eel fishery May 1. The board could also extend the current quota for three years.<\/p>\n The eels are sold as seed stock to Asian aquaculture companies that raise them to maturity so they can be used as food, such as kabayaki, a dish of marinated, grilled eel. Some of the fish eventually return to the U.S. where they are sold at sushi restaurants.<\/p>\n The eels were worth $2,009 a pound last year \u2014\u00a0more than 400 times more than lobster<\/a>, Maine\u2019s signature seafood. Maine has had an elver fishery for decades, but the state\u2019s eels became more valuable in the early 2010s, in part, because foreign sources dried up. The European eel is listed as more critically endangered than the American eel by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, though some environmental groups have pushed for greater conservation in the U.S.<\/p>\n Since booming in value, elvers have become the second most valuable fish species in Maine in terms of total value. The state has instituted numerous new controls to try to thwart poaching, which has emerged as a\u00a0major concern as the eels have increased<\/a>\u00a0in value.<\/p>\n The elver quota remaining at current levels reflects \u201cstrong management measures we\u2019ve instituted here in Maine,\u201d said Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, earlier this month. A quota cut \u201ccould have been a loss of millions of dollars in income for Maine\u2019s elver industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s elver season starts next week. Catching the elvers is difficult and involves setting up large nets in Maine\u2019s cold rivers and streams at pre-dawn hours.<\/p>\n But that hasn\u2019t stopped new fishermen from trying their hand in the lucrative business. The state awards to right to apply for an elver license via a lottery, and this year more than 4,500 applicants applied for just 16 available licenses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSubscribe to the CFO Daily newsletter to keep up with the trends, issues, and executives shaping corporate finance. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n