SOLOMONS, Md., — November 12, 2013 — While there seem to be a lot of eels in Maryland waters, scientists elsewhere have concluded that the Atlantic coast’s eel population has been depleted. Last week, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission put off a decision on catch limits until May while one state, Maine, works to slash its commercial harvest of young “glass” eels. The catch there surged in recent years to cash in on a booming export market, with nearly $39 million worth of the tiny translucent juveniles being shipped abroad, mostly to Asia.
On a chilly morning when other watermen on the Patuxent River dredged for oysters, Jimmy Trossbach sought more slippery quarry – American eels.
“I don’t know what we’ll find here,” Trossbach said as he guided his 45-foot workboat, Prospector, to a pair of empty plastic jugs bobbing on the water. His helper, Jake Walker, reeled in the eel pots they’d set two days before.
The first cylindrical mesh cage they hauled aboard pulsed with a writhing tangle of olive green. Walker dumped the eels into a wooden box with holes in its sides, and the snakelike fish slithered into a large tank of water.
“People will say, ‘I didn’t know there were so many eels out there,’” said Trossbach, 54, who’s been eeling for 26 years.
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald