-CP-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…
Register
