April 21, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — With a magnetic swipe card system now in place, the Department of Marine Resources is able to track elver landings — or at least sales by harvesters to dealers — more or less as they occur in real time.
On Friday, DMR released totals, current through 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 14, for all elver purchases reported by licensed dealers from DMR and tribally-licensed harvesters.
As of the cutoff time, fishermen had landed a total of 2,932.39 pounds of elvers since the season began on March 22. That represents just over 30 percent of the 9,688-pound annual quota for all harvesters set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
In the four days since the previous report, harvesters sold some 738 pounds of elvers to Maine dealers. Of that, harvesters licensed by DMR rather than by one of the state’s four recognized tribes landed 426.34 pounds. As of Tuesday morning, dealers were paying harvesters about $1,450 per pound for live elvers.