US regulators maintain fishing quota for valuable baby eels, even as Canada struggles with poaching

By PATRICK WHITTLE
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — U.S. regulators have decided to allow American fishermen to harvest thousands of pounds of a valuable species of tiny fish in the coming years, even as Canadian authorities have shuttered the industry while they grapple with poaching. Baby eels, also called elvers, are harvested from rivers and streams by fishermen every spring. The tiny fish are sometimes worth more than $2,000 per pound because of their high value to Asian aquaculture companies. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decided Wednesday that U.S. fishermen will be allowed to harvest a total of a little less than 10,000 pounds of the eels per year. That holds the line on current levels.