Even as DFO has begun arresting illegal elver harvesters, the baby eels are still leaving Canadian airports under the federal government’s nose enroute to markets in Asia.
Late Saturday night, Fisheries and Oceans Canada officers arrested five more people for illegally fishing elvers in the Meteghan area.
They seized a vehicle used by the five, all residents of Maine, 3.448 kilograms of elvers and fishing gear.
According to a written statement, they seized another 13.5 kilograms the same night caught by others, though there is no word on whether charges will be laid in relation to that seizure.
All the elvers were returned alive to the river.
So far this year, 95 people have been arrested, and 21 vehicles and 73.6 kilograms of elvers seized by DFO officers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
DFO did not say how many of those arrested have been charged or whether the Public Prosecution Service of Canada is prosecuting them.
‘Why do I have to lose my job?’
“I think it’s great that they’ve actually started enforcing but why do I have to lose my job for them to do their job?” said Zachary Townsend on Wednesday.
The plant manager for Shelburne Elver, a co-operative owned by 17 commercial licence owners, along with its 40 employees, are all out of work this year because DFO refused to open the season.
Federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier announced early in the spring there will be no elver season, citing concerns about the ability of her officers to control it.
DFO and a series of six Liberal federal fisheries ministers over the past eight years have been widely criticized for not enforcing the Fisheries Act and allowing the illegal elver fishery to grow.
Rampant poaching
According to internal DFO emails obtained by The Chronicle Herald, as an absence of enforcement saw last year’s season devolve into rampant poaching and violence, biker gangs sought involvement.
There was at least one shooting involving unlicensed elver harvesters, kidnappings, a pepper spray fight on a river, stealing of fishing equipment, a member of Parliament who spoke out about the lawlessness who had his life threatened, and many illegal harvesters were carrying guns.
While enforcement has increased this year, large quantities of elvers are leaving airports in Halifax and Toronto under the noses of the Canadian Border Services Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
At a House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans hearing into the elver fishery earlier this month, South Shore-St. Margarets MP Rick Perkins grilled CBSA, RCMP and CFIA brass.
“Are you aware large amounts (of elvers) go out live in lobster crates,” Perkins asked CBSA regional director Dominic Mallette.
“I am aware, fully aware,” responded Dominic Mallette.
Mallette also testified they have the technology to look in crates.
The CBSA has not seized any elvers this year.
They also didn’t seize any last year.
Records from the Hong Kong government obtained by The Chronicle Herald showed that seven times the amount legally caught in Canada last year were imported from Canada labeled as Canadian product.
‘Not our responsibility’
Mallette said that there are no regulations against exporting illegally caught elvers.
“Traceability, per se, is not our responsibility,” said Mallette under questioning.
“… If we had regulations that would allow us to enforce the law, that would help. If permits were required for import export, that would allow us to help fight the situation. But right now there are no permits required for import/export.”
Coast of Bays-Central-Notre Dame MP Clifford Small jumped on the lack of regulations.
“Now DFO’s known about the catastrophe in the elver fishery for the last 10 years. Wouldn’t you think that’d be enough time for a regime to be put in place that could straighten all this out?” said the Conservative MP.
Mallette responded that the question was best suited for DFO, which wasn’t represented at that hearing.
All going to China
CFIA executive director Parthi Muthukumarasamy told the hearings that his agency is only responsible for certifying live seafood is free of disease when a country requires such a document.
He said Hong Kong doesn’t require an export certificate unless they are being re-exported to China.
“Are you aware all those exports are going to China because that’s where the aquaculture facilities are?” asked Perkins.
“And are you aware that they have (been) forging CFIA certificates.”
To which Muthukumarasamy responded, “when we are aware of forged certificates, we take action and we have a mechanism in place … we are not aware of any forged certificates.”
Meanwhile, Townsend said he is facing personal bankruptcy after having the season shut early last year and not opened at all this year.
“I am greatly distressed that Minister Lebouthillier wouldn’t even meet with a single elver fisherman before closing our fishery, costing 1100 Nova Scotians and New Brunswickers fishing jobs,” said Townsend.
“She refuses to even comment on this to the press.”
Lebouthillier refused a request to testify at the Standing Committee hearings.
Working on new regulations
However, DFO deputy minister Annette Gibbons did testify at a hearing in February.
She said then that DFO is working on new regulations that would include traceability and give her officers the legal power to seize and arrest individuals possessing elvers without proof they’d been caught legally.
But she wouldn’t offer a timeline for when they’d be coming.
“You’ve had nearly a 50 per cent increase in your staff, over a doubling of DFO’s budget since 2015, since this government got elected, what do you need to get the job done?” asked Newfoundland and Labrador MP Clifford Small.
“Is it possible that you can actually do the job?”
To which Gibbons responded, “So I would say, the regulatory progress is really the key determinant of the speed of which we go. There are steps that we follow when bringing in regulations and you know, it takes time, regulatory processes typically take more than two years.”
