As elver fishery season set to launch, N.S. First Nation rejects federal rules

Baby eels, also known as elvers, are held in Brewer, Maine, on May 25, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Robert F. Bukaty

HALIFAX — The fishing season for baby eels is set to begin at midnight in the Maritimes, but at least one First Nation says it won’t abide by federal rules that limit the lucrative catch.

In a March 5 letter, Chief Bob Gloade of Millbrook First Nation told the federal Fisheries Department his community won’t use Ottawa’s recently developed smartphone app to log fishers' harvests — and doesn’t recognize Ottawa’s jurisdiction to oversee the fishery.

Canadian baby eels — also known as elvers — are fished in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Maine and shipped live to Asia, where they are grown to maturity.

After several chaotic and sometimes violent fishing seasons, Ottawa developed an application that allows enforcement officials to monitor the catch of juvenile eels from the point they’re caught until they’re sent to border crossings.

However, Gloade says the Millbrook fishers won’t use the app, and cites a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision that allows for Mi’kmaq communities to earn a moderate livelihood from fishing.

That court decision, however, also says Ottawa has the right to regulate fisheries for conservation purposes, but Gloade says his community will run its own regulatory system because it believes the elver stock is healthy.

The federal management plan for the 2025 elver season allocated 50 per cent of the 9,960-kilogram total catch to new entrants from First Nations, shifting quota away from non-Indigenous, commercial licence holders.

The regulated elver fishery wasn’t opened last year, with the federal minister citing violence and unlicensed harvesting on the rivers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2025.

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