Eel Poaching in Rhode Island

[DZ]

This is interesting - probably been going on for quite a while.

R.I. Eel Poachers Head to Court


By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

PROVIDENCE — Two of the four alleged poachers of the pricey American eel had their day in court Friday. George H. Anestis, 41, of Boxborough, Mass., and his father, George J. Anestis, 65, of Phippsburg, Maine, agreed to pay $2,000 fines each and have their nets and traps confiscated for poaching juvenile elver eels from Rhode Island.

State environmental police apprehended the men April 7 as they pulled their catch from eel traps in the Seekonk River in Pawtucket. One of the men carried a bucket containing about 2.5 pounds of elvers as police approached him behind the Apex building. Police also confiscated a large cooler containing elvers in the back of their SUV.

The men were staying at a nearby hotel and told police they had been in the area numerous times to poach the 2- to 4-inch elvers. They admitted seeing other elver poachers in the area. They said they sold their fish for about $1,000 a pound. They wouldn't divulge their buyers' names.

Both were charged with misdemeanor offenses of exceeding the daily catch limit, possession of undersize American eel, fishing without a commercial license and obstruction of migratory fish passage.

Alan L. Beaucage, 37, of Alna, Maine, and Jeremy J. Geroux, 35, of Newcastle, Maine, also were arrested and charged with the same offenses as the Anestises, following an April 14 incident in Pawtucket. Arrest warrants were issued for the arrest of Beaucauge and Geroux for their failure to appear May 10 in Superior Court.

Last month, state environmental police alerted police departments across Rhode Island of the eel poaching problem. Barrington police arrested a Maine resident May 2 suspected a poaching elvers. The suspect was charged with drug possession.

Elvers, also called glass eels, arrive each spring to the East Coast from the Sargasso Sea, in the North Atlantic. The tiny eel migrate inland to freshwater rivers and other inland estuaries, where they live for up to 20 years before returning to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die. Peak migration season in Rhode Island runs from mid-April to mid-May. Demand in Asia has driven the American eel population to near collapse, according to state environmental officials.

The eels are considered a vital food source for other fish and birds. The American eel is labeled “stressed” due to overharvesting and the loss of habitat.

Maine, South Carolina and Florida allow limited fishing of elvers, while most other Atlantic Coast states prohibit such fishing. Demand in Asia for elvers brings drives the price to more than $2,000 a pound. Maine generated some $40 million in sales of glass eel in 2012.