Good Eel News!!

[Roccus7]

The US market for elvers has collapsed. This year, Maine elver fishermen gave up and only harvested 91% of the quota because the price tanked. In 2026 the average per pound price plummeted from the >$2000s to only $339!!, so low that many quit fishing early.

Early season prices were lower than $150 per pound!! I noticed the local elver camp disappeared very early this year.

Why?? The Japanese have been successful in fertilizing eel eggs and maturing them into elvers that can be used for aquaculture. That’s definitely good news for US eels.

 

[MakoMatt]

The US market for elvers has collapsed. This year, Maine elver fishermen gave up and only harvested 91% of the quota because the price tanked. In 2026 the average per pound price plummeted from the >$2000s to only $339!!, so low that many quit fishing early.

Early season prices were lower than $150 per pound!! I noticed the local elver camp disappeared very early this year.

Why?? The Japanese have been successful in fertilizing eel eggs and maturing them into elvers that can be used for aquaculture. That’s definitely good news for US eels.

Speaking about the price of eels……. Around 60 revolutions around the sun ago, I used to jack for eels in the flats in Massaqequa with a neighbor kid, Mark was his name, lived across the cove from me. He lived next door to, or at the house that had the seaplane if annyone remembers that. It was on Jomar Ct. Anyway, we could fill up a big garbage pail with BIG American eels on one low tide with the right wind. We would sell them 3 for $1 in the neighborhood.

 

[george]

That really is good news. Strange, though. We have farm raised striped bass, yet we still gotta sell the wild ones.