The federal fisheries minister says the lucrative elver fishery will stay closed for the 2024 season.
Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Minister Diane Lebouthillier rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
The government says fisheries officers will enforce the ban and are patrolling rivers, facilities and export points to stop unauthorized harvest, sale and export.Lebouthillier said in a statement Monday that recent years have seen “significant quantities of elvers being fished illegally, jeopardizing the conservation of the species.”
The species was designated as threatened in 2012 by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.