The management of, and fishery for, American eel elvers in the maritime provinces, Canada

Abstract

The fishery for American eel, Anguilla rostrata, elvers in the Scotia-Fundy area of Atlantic Canada has, since inception in 1989, increased catches from 26 kg to about 3 000 kg in 1996. Development of the fishery has been tightly controlled with nine licenses presently (1996) issued, three of which are restricted to aquaculture use. No elver fishery is permitted in rivers in which an active fishery for larger eels exists, each license has a quota of up to 1 ton, with a limit of 300 kg from any given river, and records of daily catch and fishing effort, by gear type, are now required for each river fished. Elver catches and CPUE vary geographically, being highest along the south shore and lower Bay of Funcly areas of Nova Scotia, moderately high along the lower Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, and lowest along the eastern shore of Nova Scotia and upper Bay of Fundy areas (Minas Basin and Chignecto Bay). In all areas but the eastern shore of Nova Scotia, commercial quantities of elvers first arrive in April. Elver catch peaks during May, then declines through June with small (less than 1% of total) catches occurring in some areas during early July. Geographic differences in elver catches and run timing may be linked to oceanographic current patterns, particularly the southwestward flow of the Nova Scotia Current along the Atlantic coast and the counter-clockwise flow around the Bay of Fundy, and differences in the timing of rising river water temperatures during spring. Elver run size was not proportional to river size (drainage area) for two rivers from different geographic areas nor was elver fishery catch-per-unit-fishing effort proportional to river drainage area, perhaps because of geographic differences in elver density.