Here you see glass eel fishermen, male and female, setting up a Fyke net yesterday to catch migrating baby American eels before they swim up Patten Stream:
The lucrative season for these fish (yes, eels are fish) opened yesterday and will run through June 7, unless the State closes it earlier for conservation or other reasons.
These eels are now about three inches long and transparent except for their eyes and backbone. Some call them “elvers,” a name for young eels, while others say that the glass eels only become elvers when they are four to six inches long and turn opaquely yellowish like their larger parents. Here’s an archive image of them:
Fyke (usually pronounced “Fick”) nets are named after 9th Century Dutch netted fish traps. They’re large, thin-meshed funnel nets on long poles and/or ropes with a trap and capture bag at the end. They’re placed in the historic paths of the incoming eels that are migrating from the Sargasso Sea area and trying to get into fresh water to mature.
Under Maine regulations, the young eels also may be caught by license holders with a dip net or a “Sheldon eel trap,” which is a netted or screened box trap that is named after its Maine inventor.
The glass eels caught in Maine are sold to dealers at very high, fluctuating market prices, which have averaged over $2000 per pound in recent years. They’re then mostly resold to Asian importers at even higher prices. Most of the squirming youngsters reportedly are sealed into watertight containers and flown to various locations in Asia, especially Japan, where they’re raised into adult eels and resold as expensive delicacies for use in sushi and other traditional meals. (Images taken in Surry, Maine, on March 22, 2025, unless noted otherwise.)