Yikes

[MakoMike]

Before you condemn the elver fishery consider that only about 1 in 10,000 elvers ever makes it to adulthood!

[FishermanTim]

Might as well give on using eels next year!
I mean, we've had a moratorium on herring for how many years now? And when do you think we will be able to start using them again?

Answer.....NEVER!

The same will happen with eels.

Remember that poachers are too stupid, too ignorant and too arrogant to read and comprehend what they are helping destroy!

Now if all the funds we paid to the freshwater and marine fisheries were to be used to control and curtail these POS we might have a little piece of mind, but we'll NEVER get the bait back again!!!

Add to this the problems related to plastics and the environment, and we are truly screwed!

[bobber]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

Before you condemn the elver fishery consider that only about 1 in 10,000 elvers ever makes it to adulthood!

thats the exact reason they should close that ridiculous fishery... its agold-rush mentality that encourages cheating, and even some robberies.

AND if only 1 in 10,000 make it to adulthood, they should not remove hundreds of thousands of elvers from the population and make their likelihood of surviving to adulthood that much less likely...

right?

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by bobber

thats the exact reason they should close that ridiculous fishery... its agold-rush mentality that encourages cheating, and even some robberies.

AND if only 1 in 10,000 make it to adulthood, they should not remove hundreds of thousands of elvers from the population and make their likelihood of surviving to adulthood that much less likely...

right?

Well, look at it this way, if you buy a dozen eels you probably have done more damage to the eel population than the average elver fisherman.

[bobber]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

Well, look at it this way, if you buy a dozen eels you probably have done more damage to the eel population than the average elver fisherman.

Mike- I know you're a pro-commercial guy, but now you're just not making sense. allowing the harvest of elvers takes millions of potential adults out of the equation before they can grow and reproduce.... guys who use eels for bait are taking adults that have already reproduced.....

[BatesBCheatin]

From what I've read, I'm fairly certain that as soon as a mature silver eel reproduces it soon dies. It takes somewhere between 5 and 30 years for an adult eel to reproduce and they spawn only once in a lifetime.

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by bobber

Mike- I know you're a pro-commercial guy, but now you're just not making sense. allowing the harvest of elvers takes millions of potential adults out of the equation before they can grow and reproduce.... guys who use eels for bait are taking adults that have already reproduced.....

Wrong on so many counts. The eels we use for bait are not adults, they are "yellow eels" they turn into "silver eels" when they become adults. Once adults migrate to the Sargasso sea they die. You will never see a post spawn adult eel.

1 pound of elvers equals approx. 5,000 fish so it takes an elver fisherman taking 2 pounds of elvers to reduce the adult population by 1, So if you have a dozen eels you have done as much damage to the population as an elver fisherman who catches 24 pounds of elvers. (I doubt that most elver fishermen are that successful but I don't know for sure)

I don't have a dog in this fight, as I seldom fish with eels. Last time I did it was probably five years ago. I'm just trying to bring the facts out, not following the old mantra that its always commercial fishing to blame.

I did a lot of research into this the last time around, even wrote several articles for the fisherman mag and On The water about it. Nothing seems to have changed in the last 8 years.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

Nothing seems to have changed in the last 8 years.

well except for the price per pound....

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by Raven

well except for the price per pound....

This is true. But it has been gyrating more than the stock market the past couple of years. (want to buy some eel futures? )

[Redsoxticket]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

Wrong on so many counts. The eels we use for bait are not adults, they are "yellow eels" they turn into "silver eels" when they become adults. Once adults migrate to the Sargasso sea they die. You will never see a post spawn adult eel.

1 pound of elvers equals approx. 5,000 fish so it takes an elver fisherman taking 2 pounds of elvers to reduce the adult population by 1, So if you have a dozen eels you have done as much damage to the population as an elver fisherman who catches 24 pounds of elvers. (I doubt that most elver fishermen are that successful but I don't know for sure)

I don't have a dog in this fight, as I seldom fish with eels. Last time I did it was probably five years ago. I'm just trying to bring the facts out, not following the old mantra that its always commercial fishing to blame.

I did a lot of research into this the last time around, even wrote several articles for the fisherman mag and On The water about it. Nothing seems to have changed in the last 8 years.

You equate 2lbs of elvers or 10,000 individual elvers to one adult eel and then stated that the yellow eels used for fishing are not the adults (silver eel). Your logic would be correct if those dozen eels purchased at the bait shop were silver eels but their not, they are yellow eels. Do you know how many yellow eels needed to make one adult silver eel being that you studied this topic extensively?

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by Redsoxticket

You equate 2lbs of elvers or 10,000 individual elvers to one adult eel and then stated that the yellow eels used for fishing are not the adults (silver eel). Your logic would be correct if those dozen eels purchased at the bait shop were silver eels but their not, they are yellow eels. Do you know how many yellow eels needed to make one adult silver eel being that you studied this topic extensively?

You are absolutely correct. No I don't know how many yellow eels make it to become silver eels. I would assume that, like most other fish, the mortality is much less as they grow larger.

I was trying to make a point, which some here seem to miss completely, e.g. the average fisherman who uses eels is doing almost as much damage to the eel population as an elver fisherman.

[zimmy]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

Before you condemn the elver fishery consider that only about 1 in 10,000 elvers ever makes it to adulthood!

And when you take a year like 2012, when the Maine harvest was about 3.4 million elvers, zero of those make it to adulthood. ~3.3 million of which would have been consumed in the food chain. Now they aren't available as energy in the system and the few elvers left unharvested face even greater pressure. Good point if you leave out the "before you condemn" part.

[BatesBCheatin]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

Before you condemn the elver fishery consider that only about 1 in 10,000 elvers ever makes it to adulthood!

Is that number because of the elver fishery or despite the elver fishery?

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by BatesBCheatin

Is that number because of the elver fishery or despite the elver fishery?

Neither it's due to natural mortality.