Priced at Thousands of Dollars per Kilogram, Baby Eels Have Set Off a Global Frenzy | The Walrus (thewalrus.ca)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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It is their juvenile form that has turned an odd-looking, slippery fish into an expensive commodity. Elvers are now Canada’s most valuable fish. Driven by demand in Asia, glass eels can fetch thousands of dollars per kilogram (approximately a one-litre bottle full)—even sometimes more than $5,000 per kilogram. In 2022, fishers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick earned $39 million from 7,557 kilograms of elvers harvested, according to DFO.

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[-] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Yeah that kind of shit is nearly causing the European population of eels to disappear from rivers :-/

Too much fishing the larvae and there’s not much back to the continent.

[-] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 33 points 2 days ago

Great way to over fish a fishery

[-] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 day ago

It’s an issue here. The methods theu use are not sustainable. They are going to wonder why eels are hard to find in a decade. Like they did with the cod. Fucking short sighted greedy pillagers.

[-] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 4 points 1 day ago

We have fucked over our eel populations selling them in to Asia, and our 'whitebait' by over harvesting here in NZ

[-] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 day ago

In a decade? Eels were already hard to find a decade ago. At least where I live.

[-] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

I haven't been looking for eels. This doesn't surprise me.

[-] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

I've been fishing (well, drinking) with people who were trying to catch eel. Usually very rare to get any for casual fishers.

Ridiculously good tasting fish when smoked though. But it's like a treat to get very rarely because of how expensive it is vs how little you get.

Never tried baby eel though. We have minimum size limits in place for catching fish here and most people have the good sense to obey them

[-] SpicyLizards@reddthat.com 12 points 2 days ago

Don't worry, it's just a name. They are mostly plastic now.

[-] dlsloop@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

The Walrus has awoken. God help us all.

this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026

58 points (100.0% liked)

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