May 6, 2013 — The strange fugitive hunt that played out Friday in the vast saltmarsh between Seabrook and Hampton Falls has landed two Maine brothers in jail.
But it has also put a spotlight on the illegal practice of harvesting a tiny, slimy fish that can command upward $1,800 per pound.
Known as “elvers,” the targets of the harvest are juvenile American eels — not more than 6 inches long. And at this time of year, they migrate up rivers in large schools.
Different from the more familiar slime eels and eels used as bait by fishermen off Gloucester and Cape Ann, the elvers are thin as spaghetti and translucent — but they are a hot commodity in Japan, where they are raised in fish farms to full size and sold to consumers.
Police say the lure of that handsome price brought Matthew Kinney, 29, of Bremen, Maine, and his brother Justin, 35, of Mount Vernon, Maine, to the Hampton Falls River in an attempt to illegally catch elvers. According to Lt. Michael Eastman of New Hampshire Fish and Game, the two were spotted at around 5 a.m. by a routine Fish and Game patrol.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times