Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is reportedly proposing big changes for its elver fishery after it cancelled the 2024 fishing season.
Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans Minister Diane Lebouthillier completely cancelled the 2024 elver fishery – which runs in the spring – in March 2024 after the season in 2023 was cut short due to rampant poaching. Media reports in 2023 detailed balaclava-clad men poaching the species and instances of violence as they targeted the valuable species – which were sold for as much as CAD 5,000 (USD 3,500, EUR 3,300) per kilgram in the 2022 season.
The 2024 season was also shaping up to be difficult, as the DFO reported arrests and vessel seizures in March, before an official season would have even opened.
Now, the CBC reports the department is proposing a major shakeup in the fishery that would shift how it hands out quotas.
According to a letter from the DFO sent to members of the fishery on 5 December, which The Canadian Press reported it obtained, the DFO is proposing handing 50 percent of the total allowable catch (TAC) to First Nations fishers, and another 28 percent to a new pilot project that would shift how the quota is handed out...
