Fisheries officers seize $500K worth of baby eels outside Halifax

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it has seized $500,000 worth of baby eels in Enfield, N.S.

In social media posts Monday morning, DFO said it made the large seizure of baby eels — called elvers — on Friday following an inspection.

It said the seizure included 113 kilograms of elvers, worth approximately $500,000. A truck, trailer and $15,792 in cash were also seized.

One person was arrested following the bust.

The lucrative fishery has seen widespread poaching on rivers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and DFO has been accused of not doing enough to stop illegal fishing.

The bust came as New Brunswick's Minister of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries Minister Margaret Johnson wrote to federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray demanding more enforcement of the fishery closure in that province.

"Closing this fishery but failing to assign resources to ensure compliance and consequence [for] poachers is a recipe for disaster," Johnson wrote in the letter dated May 5, which was first reported by the Telegraph-Journal in Saint John.

"It risks the imminent devastation of this resource, increases tension and materially increases the risk of violence in the fishing communities."

Johnson offered Murray the use of provincial safety officers to bolster DFO's enforcement efforts.

Nova Scotia Liberal leader Zach Churchill says Nova Scotia should make a similar offer to help.

"Premier Houston should be doing the same thing in Nova Scotia. This is a really serious issue. It's affecting fishers who do this for a living. It's affecting safety. It's even affecting power. One of the power dams had to shut down because of illegal elver fishery," Churchill told CBC News Monday.

Nova Scotia Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Steve Craig said the large seizure is encouraging but more needs to be done.

"With that in mind, I also call on my federal colleague at DFO to ensure adequate enforcement resources are urgently assigned to Nova Scotia's rivers to protect the long-term sustainability of both eel stocks and the elver fishery," Craig said in a statement to CBC News on Monday.

The province did not address whether it is willing to provide enforcement assistance like New Brunswick.

The legal fishery was shut down April 15 after hundreds of people descended on Nova Scotia and New Brunswick rivers to cash in on a species that sells for up to $5,000 per kilogram when caught legally — but for less on the black market.

The tiny, translucent eels are shipped live to Asia, where they are grown for food. 

On Monday, DFO said between April 15 and May 5, it made 53 arrests and seized dozens of nets.

Bust doesn't outweigh illegal fishing: Elver group

Some commercial elver licence holders — who were forced off the water by the closure of the legal fishery — say enforcement has been pitifully small compared to the scale of the illegal fishery.

Atlantic Elver Fishery, which fishes rivers south of Halifax, has used trail cameras to document poaching 21 times since the shutdown. It has sent the images to DFO daily.

Stanley King of Atlantic Elver said Friday's bust comes too late in the season to have a meaningful impact. He says only 10 kilograms was seized before that point.

"Although welcome news, the 123 kilograms reportedly seized pales in comparison to the several metric tons illegally harvested and shipped out of the country since the fishery was closed," he said.

"It's clear that DFO's enforcement branch is systemically understaffed and cannot provide meaningful enforcement, a fact that needs to be remedied before next season."

King also recently wrote to Murray, saying that "without enforcement, the shutdown order has only hurt licence holders, clearing the rivers for poachers."

Commercial elver licence holder Tien Nguyen of Neptune Canada tells CBC News that DFO was unprepared for what happened this spring.

"It is good news in the sense that DFO is finally doing some appropriate action which should have been done a long time ago — since even before the season started," Nguyen said in an interview from the company office in Longueuil, Que.

Brian Giroux, of the Shelburne Elver Group in southern Nova Scotia, agrees.

"It's finally a large operation, or finally a large seizure. But it's kind of sad when you consider that on the 14th of April when they closed the fishery, they estimated that almost 5,000 kilograms had been stolen by poachers," he said.

Seized elvers were sold 

In a response provided after this story was published, DFO said the seized elvers were sold and the proceeds would be held until the investigation or prosecution is completed.

In the case of a conviction, the crown gets the money. In the case of an acquittal, proceeds will be given to the defendant.

"DFO makes every effort to return fish to their waters after they are seized," spokesperson Lauren Sankey said in a statement Tuesday.

"However, they cannot be returned to the water in cases where it is not possible to determine where the fish originated from, and/or the sanitation of the containers used to hold and transfer them. This reduces the risk of parasites, diseases, pathogens, or invasive species spreading among watersheds as a result from unauthorized fishing activities."

Enforcement efforts continue: DFO

In a statement on Monday, DFO said the latest seizure did not take place at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, which is close to Enfield. It declined to provide any more details.

"To maintain operational integrity, we do not disclose the number of active officers nor what specific enforcement activities they are undertaking," the department said.

In a statement last week, the office of Murray said efforts to "deter and disrupt" poaching are continuing.