The tide and fyke nets were slack when we arrived at the mouth of Patten Stream on Wednesday, the opening day of the elver season. Here you see one of the nets set to catch these baby American eels (Anguilla rostrata). Fyke (usually locally pronounced “fick”) nets are thin-meshed funnels with a trap and capture-container at the end; the name evolved from the old Dutch word “fuik,” meaning “fish trap.”
At this stage in their lives, the elvers also are known as glass eels because they’re transparent except for their eyes and backbone:
Leighton Archive Image
Maine reportedly is the only state with a significant eel fishery. In fact, on a per-pound basis, elvers are Maine’s most valuable fish (yes, eels are fish), and they’re the State’s second most valuable annual fishing harvest (after lobsters, which are not fish).
The elver harvest here in 2022 reportedly was worth more than $20.1 million and their price per pound reached $2,131.00 then. They’re ultimately sold mostly to importers in Asia, who receive them live in chilled, air-shipped containers. They’re then raised to maturity and resold for sushi and other delicacies.
These elvers are thought to be migrating here from their parents’ breeding grounds in and around the Sargasso Sea, which encompasses the Bermuda Islands. It’s also thought that these babies are seeking the same freshwater streams and ponds in which their parents matured. But it’s hard to find out what is really happening in eel migrations.
At some time after maturity (usually years), many of these eels will migrate from here back to their species’ breeding grounds and die there after breeding. Thus, they are “catadromous” fish; that is, they have life cycles in both salt and fresh waters.
The 2023 elver season will end here no later than June 7, but that date could be foreshortened by Maine’s diligent wildlife regulators, if they perceive a preservation need. (Primary images taken in Surry, Maine, on March 22, 2023.)