Judge sides with DFO in elver quota dispute

A judge has refused to overturn a decision made last year by a federal fisheries official to maintain the total annual quota for the Maritime juvenile eel fishery at 9,960 kilograms, a number that hasn't budged for two decades.

A group of commercial licence holders have argued there's science that backs up their push to increase the total allowable catch, which they say would encourage more people who are fishing without authorization to enter the legal system.

The case was in Federal Court earlier this month. In a Feb. 21 decision, Justice Richard Southcott sided with the federal government, ruling the reasons underpinning the quota decision were "comprehensible and rational."

The fishery for the tiny eels, also known as elvers, is done during the spring along Nova Scotia and New Brunswick rivers. It can be lucrative, with the eels shipped live to Asia where they are raised in aquaculture facilities for food.

Soaring prices in the last decade, however, have led to uncontrolled unauthorized fishing. After the decision was made last year on quota, the federal fisheries minister cancelled the season outright over safety and conservation concerns.

This year's season is expected to open in the coming weeks. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has once again set the total allowable catch at 9,960 kilograms, but is also reshaping the industry by introducing new regulations and stripping commercial licence holders of much of their quota, handing it to First Nations.

In his decision in the 2024 elver quota case, Southcott said the "precautionary approach" taken by the department lines up with the Fisheries Act.

Monitoring on a river outside Halifax has shown elver numbers are above the "long-term median value" and 2018 science advice labelled fishing at the time as moderate, a trend the ruling said would ordinarily be encouraging and "could support an argument" to increase the catch.

However, the department was concerned about the unknown amount of illegal fishing in recent years.

Eel populations have declined in parts of Canada, including Ontario, although dams and other obstructions have been the main culprit.