Drug investigation near Digby instead yields nearly $50K worth of juvenile eels

An RCMP raid last week at a southwest Nova Scotia home didn't yield the drugs that investigators were apparently seeking, but police did discover almost $50,000 worth of juvenile eels that fisheries officers determined were being stored illegally.

Police searched a home in Plympton, about 20 kilometres southwest of Digby, N.S., last Thursday as part of a drug trafficking investigation, according to an RCMP spokesperson. Officers arrested one man, but he was released without charges.

Police found no drugs, but did discover the tiny eels, known as elvers, along with some illegal tobacco. Fisheries officers were called in, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said 30 kilograms of elvers were seized.

The seizure is one of a number authorities have made in recent weeks. DFO has been routinely posting updates on its enforcement in the lucrative fishery, although the department faces criticism from some commercial licence holders who believe officials are not doing enough.

DFO has tried this season to bring the fishery under control after several years of rampant unauthorized harvesting along Nova Scotia and New Brunswick rivers driven by demand from Asia, where the elvers are shipped live and raised in aquaculture facilities for food.

Hundreds of inspections

The department introduced new regulations aimed at halting the sale and export of illegally caught elvers. As of Sunday, DFO reported officers have done 907 riverside inspections, 104 inspections at holding facilities and 205 inspections at airports. There have been dozens of arrests.

But there continues to be criticism from a number of commercial licence holders that fisheries officers aren't responding to multiple complaints of unauthorized fishing.

Stanley King, with Atlantic Elver, said the Ingram River west of Halifax is one of the waterways assigned to his company. The quota for the river has been caught, but he said riverside cameras show people continue to fish for elvers.

He said he and others have repeatedly called the DFO reporting line. He also spoke by phone with Noel d'Entremont, the department's director of conservation and protection in the Maritimes, and voiced his concerns.

Particularly worrisome, King said, is unauthorized fishing on the East River near Chester, N.S. The river is the site of a nearly three-decade elver monitoring study.

"It undermines the only scientific data that we have that supports the sustainability of our industry and, you know, informs us on the health of our stocks," he said. "It's incredibly important. There's nothing else like it."

Debra Buott-Matheson, a DFO spokesperson, said in an email that officers have made over 70 arrests this elver season for violations of fisheries laws.

But she said there also appears to be a "lower level of unrest" than in previous years when there were multiple reports of threats and violence, and seasons were cut short or cancelled outright.

King acknowledged there has been less violence and fewer assaults this season, but he said there's still been heated arguments along riverbanks between commercial fishermen and those without DFO authorization.

More than 140 rivers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are assigned for elver fishing, which is done at night during the springtime, and DFO said it has brought in additional officers from other regions, although it declined to say how many.

The department maintains it does follow up on reports of illegal fishing, but said given the large number of rivers, it can't always respond right away. During riverside inspections, officers ask harvesters for their licences and confirm they are on the correct river, the department said.

"Enforcement activity is not always visible, and it may not look the way people expect it to look," Buott-Matheson said in the email. "This fishery takes place at night, largely in the dark. Fishery officers use both overt and covert means to observe activity."