Poached eels: U.S. strikes at illegal harvests as value grows

BREWER, Maine -- Changes in the worldwide fisheries industry have turned live baby American eels into a commodity that can fetch more than $2,000 a pound at the dock, but the big demand and big prices have spawned a black market wildlife officials say is jeopardizing the species.

Law-enforcement authorities have launched a crackdown on unlicensed eel fishermen and illicit sales along the East Coast.

Although not a well-known seafood item such as the Maine lobster, wriggling baby eels, or elvers, are a fishery worth many millions of dollars.

Elvers often are sold to Asian aquaculture companies to be raised to maturity and sold to the lucrative Japanese restaurant market, where they mainly are served grilled.

But licensed U.S. fishermen complain poaching has become widespread, as prices have climbed in recent years.

In response, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies are investigating clandestine harvesting and sales.

Operation Broken Glass, a reference to the eels' glassy skin, has resulted in 15 guilty pleas for illegal trafficking of about $4 million worth of elvers.

Two people are under indictment, and more indictments are expected.

In Maine, more than 400 licensed fishermen make their living fishing for elvers in rivers such as the Penobscot in Brewer and the Passagassawakeag in Belfast every spring. They say law enforcement is vital to protecting the eels and the volatile industry.

Randy Bushey, of Steuben, has been fishing for elvers since 1993. He said he saw his income rise from as little as $5,000 per year in the 1990s to more than $350,000 in 2012.

He said tighter quotas mean he's earning less these days, and in the most recent season, he made about $57,000.

"I've seen the best, and I've seen the worst," Bushey said. "I want to see it preserved. I want to see it straightened out."

The elvers are legally harvested in the U.S. only in Maine and South Carolina.

The American eel fishery was typically worth $1 million to $3 million per year until 2011, when the economics of the industry changed.

Asian and European eel stocks dried up, and the value of American eels grew to more than $40 million in 2012 because of demand in China, South Korea and other Asian countries.

Investigators also turned their eyes to poaching in 2011, the Department of Justice said. The investigation of people who catch, sell or export elvers illegally has ranged from Maine to South Carolina; a New York seafood distributor was among those netted.

In one case, federal prosecutors said, three men pleaded guilty in November 2016 to trafficking more than $740,000 worth of elvers harvested illegally from the Cooper River in the Charleston, South Carolina, area.