Officers seize $500,000 worth of baby eels outside Halifax amid fishery closure

HALIFAX –

Fisheries officers seized 113 kilograms of child eels price round $500,000 throughout a current inspection outdoors Halifax in an effort to crack down on unlawful harvesting.

The federal Fisheries Department says it additionally seized a truck and trailer together with $15,792 in money through the inspection Friday in Enfield, N.S.

The division closed the fishery for child eels, generally known as elvers, in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for 45 days on April 15 after reviews of poaching and of violence amongst fishers. Elvers are price greater than $4,000 per kilogram; they’re fished at evening and flown reside to Asia the place they’re grown for meals.

Officials mentioned Monday that because the closure they’ve made 53 arrests and seized 123 kilograms of elvers, 28 dip nets, 46 fish traps — generally known as fyke nets — 4 automobiles, a trailer and greater than $15,000 in money.

The arrest determine is a rise of 35 folks over the 18 initially reported on Wednesday. The new numbers additionally present that 13 extra dip nets have been confiscated since final week’s report, together with 24 extra fyke nets and an extra 116.5 kilograms of elvers.

Commercial fishers have been calling for elevated enforcement of the closure, and on Friday New Brunswick Fisheries Minister Margaret Johnson demanded fast motion in opposition to poaching.

Indigenous fishers, in the meantime, have mentioned they’ve a treaty proper to fish for elvers and are not topic to the federal closure.

On Monday, Nova Scotia’s Opposition Liberals accused the federal government of Progressive Conservative Premier Tim Houston of ignoring the issue of unlawful fishing within the province.

“As the issue persists, we need to see some real action on the file from the Houston government to protect our elver fishery and get our authorized fishers back in the water,” Liberal Leader Zach Churchill mentioned in a news launch.

Last week, Nova Scotia Fisheries Minister Steve Craig mentioned he was involved about security on the province’s rivers. Craig mentioned the province licenses the buying and processing of elvers and has the power to crack down on unlawful gross sales.

However, he mentioned no fines or penalties have been imposed this yr.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed May 8, 2023.

For the newest Nova Scotia news, go to our devoted provincial web page.