May 13, 2020 — Earning a living as a fisherman is tough in the best of times. Right now, times are bad and Maine fishermen have to hope they don’t get any worse.
Last year, according to the Department of Marine Resources, Maine harvesters landed 9,620 pounds of elvers — juvenile eels — and dealers paid $20,119,194 for the catch, an average price of $2,091 per pound for the fishermen.
Things are markedly different in this year of the coronavirus pandemic.
DMR reported that, as of 6 p.m. Sunday, just 42 days into an already shortened fishing season, licensed dealers had already reported buying a total of about 9,353 pounds of elvers for a total of $4,877,240, an average price of $521 per pound, a $1,570 drop from last year in the price paid to elver harvesters.
While the season still has slightly more than three weeks left, only 267 pounds of the state’s annual elver quota established by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission remains unharvested. Of that total, no more than 99 pounds is available to harvesters licensed by DMR. At least 138 pounds of the unharvested quota is allocated among fishermen licensed by the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians or the government of the Penobscot Nation.