One of Canada's most lucrative fisheries shuts down | About That

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has shut down the lucrative baby eel fishery in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for 45 days due to violence and rampant overfishing by unauthorized harvesters. Licensed fishers are furious and ask how shutting down a legal fishery stops an illegal one. About That producer Lauren Bird breaks down what's at stake on all sides.
Read more: www.cbc.ca/news
»»» Subscribe to CBC News to watch more videos: bit.ly/1RreYWS
Connect with CBC News Online:
For breaking news, video, audio and in-depth coverage: bit.ly/1Z0m6iX
Find CBC News on Facebook: bit.ly/1WjG36m
Follow CBC News on Twitter: bit.ly/1sA5P9H
For breaking news on Twitter: bit.ly/1WjDyks
Follow CBC News on Instagram: bit.ly/1Z0iE7O
Subscribe to CBC News on Snapchat: bit.ly/3leaWsr
Download the CBC News app for iOS: apple.co/25mpsUz
Download the CBC News app for Android: bit.ly/1XxuozZ
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
For more than 80 years, CBC News has been the source Canadians turn to, to keep them informed about their communities, their country and their world. Through regional and national programming on multiple platforms, including CBC Television, CBC News Network, CBC Radio, CBCNews.ca, mobile and on-demand, CBC News and its internationally recognized team of award-winning journalists deliver the breaking stories, the issues, the analyses and the personalities that matter to Canadians.

[@CJFreeza]

I see the eel fishermen everywhere on the side of rivers and something has to be done. It's out of control.

[@stevenaudet]

There is some eel-legal stuff going on.

[@CJFreeza]

😂

[@ethimself5064]

@@CJFreeza Yes there is, clown

[@thedutch2769]

😂

[@robertcartwright4374]

Slippery characters!

[@robertcartwright4374]

Slim customers!

[@taylorv49017]

That's crazy!! And that's makes me mad. People are greedy and they always over-do everything. Grow some frickin fruit & vegetables or something. Stop over fishing! That's why we don't have anything anymore

[@KJSvitko]

Humans are crowding out all other species of plants and animals.

[@CHIEF_420]

🧂

[@lockejohn18]

Humans are awful. I hope the next species is smart and moral.

[@ahsrahoar]

It will be smart after you’re gone

[@todddrew4765]

9 licenses, 40 million dollar industry- But that’s not a problem?????? FN can’t access the fishery but 9 large license holders can. How many times do we have to hear this same story???

[@eddiespagetti8395]

It's a monopoly. Government control them. Government are god. We allow it.

[@user-eh4mb8gi2r]

Cry me a ffn river 😂

[@JasonNault]

I'm not surprised, they fished all the cod even when they seen the stocks where dwindling, then turned around and blamed the government.

[@juliamadison5701]

Violence happened with the crash of the cod and with lobster fishery too.

[@ethimself5064]

Did this happen with the Sardine and Herring also?

[@juliamadison5701]

Don’t know about the sardine and herring

[@ethimself5064]

@@juliamadison5701 Both crashed

[@aygul386]

So the licence holders would rather make the quota this season by fishing the species out of existence?

[@ethimself5064]

Do they not have a limit?

[@robbieburns3564]

@@ethimself5064 They do, but the quota is too high now due to the overfishing of the species. By inisisting on the same quota, they begin to wipe out the population. Either the species has to increase its numbers, or the quotas need to be lowered.

[@ethimself5064]

@@robbieburns3564 I also noticed a lot of poachers.

[@ethimself5064]

@@robbieburns3564 Do you not have any content saved or is it not public? Wondering

[@ethimself5064]

Poaching wild game of any kind is widespread in Canada to say the least. Get legally convicted - 10 yrs. Things have gotten outa hand for way to long, period

[@jamiezhou5049]

How about this 40M industry spend 1 million on security?

[@gror7849]

When something is endangered and thus subject to licensing, does the Supreme Court decision regarding First Nations being approved to fish moderately for a living still apply? Its obvious that those baby eels will not feed anyone as they need to mature, thus fishing them for food by the First Nations surely does not apply here... Overall though: 1. The government is incompetent if this is the second shut down in the last few years at the expense of licensed fisherman (and no they cant blame the Tories for this) ; 2. Has the law been applied to the fullest extent for those that use violence to get what they want? First Nations, Anglophone, Francophone or even Hobbit, when you use violence you must be held to account without hesitance!! 3. If this shut down happened a few years ago, why have we not asked the Supreme Court to determine how much are the First Nations allowed to fish without a license? Lets even assume the Supreme Court refuses to determine this, then all stakeholders such as government, licensed fisherman and First Nations should have negotiated a settlement that works for everyone during all these years. Last but not least - this is a huge test for us as a nation - if this species of eel went extinct or almost did, first in Asia and then in Europe and we let it happen again here we are all terrible human beings (I am inclusive here and refer to all Anglophones, First Nations, Francophones and ...Hobbits!!)

[@revcrussell]

It is not just First Nations, it is _Indians_ under the Constitution Act(s), that are governed by a particular treaty, the definition of is a little different. This is becoming a big issue with limited resources, for instance where I live the Metis are fighting the First Nations over moose and the white man gets nothing. Should it be up to the _Indians_ to decide to overhunt or overfish?

[@juliamadison5701]

Think how much weight of meat there would be if they were only fished as adult eels .. all the cooking they showed on this news article was of full grown eel..why do the want to scoop up all the babies out of the river

[@MrFpjohn]

Who is poaching? Locals or from aways? Both?

[@ethimself5064]

Sounds like the Cod, Sardine and Herring BS. Will we ever learn? Illegal wild game poaching - 10 years minimum for anything worthwhile money wise

[@alastairclarke]

I lived in a Japanese city and it was known for UNAGI. We ate it quite a lot and, indeed, delicious! Soooo good. Sorry to hear about the overfishing and all the issues. Hopefully the authorities can figure out a way to protect them.

[@burnyizland]

Unagi is my tomacco (if you've seen that Simpsons episode).

[@RichAction]

Easy solution if someone is caught illegally fishing send them to jail for a year

[@pinkgarage]

governments (ie., Harper gutting Fisheries Act) have all done their fair share to ensure resource management is about $ and in the hands of companies set to over exploit resources while ignoring conservation efforts and external drivers like climate- this will keep going, because ultimately resource management is about managing humans. Ignoring greed leads to this..., "tragedy of the commons"

[@marilyncourteau8951]

after their last " water" conference, they 've decided they must have Universal Water Rights...by 2030...see where this is going?

[@billcumming1091]

Amazing how poor the journalism is. Who is doing it?

[@SuperFkv]

I live in Denmark 95% of our eels are gone

[@binderdundit228]

Then stop eating them. They were created to eat algae and bottom waste to keep water clean. Leviticus 11 in the bible says don't eat them.

[@user-us1ow5gx5r]

This is the most criminal fishery there is.They are harvesting the base of the eel fishery which has been in trouble for years.I was a commercial eel fisherman in the eighties and the population of large eels was in decline and they are a major food source of wildlife in our province!!

[@thebowandbullet]

Yet another problem we wouldn't have to deal with if people left animals alone.

[@nickdeagle3271]

Close it permanently. This would never be done in the traditional fishery. This is one of the few areas critical for the survival of the species. Traditionally only mature eels were taken and these would be at the end of there life cycle.

[@badgrampagramps8445]

Killing baby eels is moral less regardless if you have a bloody license or not what a messed up country we live in

[@lloydmunga4961]

What we need is more government intervention, regulation and legislation . More government is what we need I’m sure this fix it. It fixes everything else, right?

[@dianefinney1]

Why are no comments allowed on some of your videos? 👀👀👀👀

[@SuccessForever1234]

No kidding, why would Castrudy leave anything open

[@universeisundernoobligatio3283]

Too many fishermen not enough fish. Canada needs to reduce the number of fisherman to 90% stoping using it a a method to collect unemployment for most of the year.

[@almisami]

The problem is that it looks like there are more poachers than legal fishermen in this case.

[@universeisundernoobligatio3283]

@@almisami The problem is Atlantic Canada has a culture of work the minimum number of days to collect unemployment then take the rest of the year off. Lots of free time to poach.

[@gitamic2287]

Fun fact: Humanity to this date have not seen eels mate. We have no idea how they reproduce or how they are born. We have been able to narrow down world wide spawning grounds to two locations in the world. Anything that happens to those two places and eels go extinct.

[@sparky7915]

Rampant crime. It happens whenever there is a lot of money involved. Maybe there should be very very heavy fines for people caught poaching. What about confiscating everything they have including their vehicles, trailers, etc.? Make the poachers pay many many times more in penalties than what their catch is worth.

[@jono601]

so unfair First Nations can just fish however they like.

[@t.geronimo4964]

it’s our land, it’s our right, and MOST of us practice conservation for it is just common knowledge for us🤷🏽‍♂️

[@bachelorsuite7066]

Sounds like Eastern Philosophy at work again... We're going to run out of fish in the Atlantic... bah, we'll see

[@BurchellAtTheWharf]

Now get on the horn about the mackerel fisheries, I wait you support the collapse of our East Coast

[@user-xd8sr4qb7j]

Probably if people could afford to eat this crap wouldn’t be happening

[@blairzettl3933]

Where are the police and DFO? Goodness, spend a little on law enforcement.

[@27murano]

That is a great way to decimate an entire species. There should not be a fishery for them.

[@kmama6715]

I love unagi. Japanese are really good at cooking eels. So sorry to hear this story.

[@Audiosweat]

Make fushermen grow them into adults and put them back in the ocean if they want to catch them

[@pierre-rose7783]

No worry, I don't buy fish anymore; it's too expensive !

[@Lp-ze1tg]

They worth as much as illegal drugs that's why people would use weapon when conflicts occurred.

[@ml.2770]

Seems fishy, almost eelegal.

[@donnajean3202]

I hate eel yuck. I don't even like eel sushi.

[@esparda07]

If I don't have anything to eat and I'm sinking in debt, following fishery rules would be at the bottom of my list.

[@paiges7998]

Look at the price of food seems like it os making sense civilian war creates when we are humgry and poor!

[@stephanienguyen6992]

Asian LOVE EELs

[@charlenelohnes4698]

Good grief.😢

[@soniakorchynski]

Its going to play out like everything else Canadian, everyone will ring their hands and then go back to apathetically doing nothing, especially the people we pay to do the work. ...oh Canada.