An elver fisher from Nova Scotia is hoping things improve under Mark Carney’s Liberals.

The baby eel season is open this year with new regulations, including an online tracking tool for catches.

The federal government closed it last year due to poaching and violence on rivers.

Brian Giroux of Shelburne Elver Ltd. tells Acadia News that 40 people in his company were out of work during that time, and during shorter closures in previous seasons.

“With no compensation, no anything, The government also took quota away from us in 2022 and 2023 and gave it to First Nations. The closures caused significant hardship in our business and in Shelburne County for those who depend on us. We still had to pay the bills,” said Giroux.

Giroux’s been fishing elvers since the late ’90s, and says things began to deteriorate around 2020 when non-licence holders began showing up at rivers.

He alleges the chaos was created by a ‘weak’ fisheries minister and former prime minister Justin Trudeau, who focused on reconciliation with First Nations instead of conservation.

“50 per cent of quotas were taken from commercial fishers and given to First Nations. The minister should have the ultimate duty of conservation and the ability to regulate moderate livelihood fisheries. Now we have chaos and violence and many demanding access to the resource,” added Giroux.

Giroux says that it’s good to be fishing in 2025 and things have been better, but violence is still happening.

He says normally they’d get $5,000 a kilogram, but it’s now about half of that.

“We have to get these lawless acts under control, it has to stop. There has to be management and enforcement in this fishery. Once that’s restored, catch values will rise again.”

First Nations want external review of Shelburne arrests

First Nations leaders are calling for action in the case of two Indigenous elver fishers arrested in Shelburne last year.

Two men allege they were released by DFO officers in March 2024 after having their gear seized, then forced to walk for hours barefoot in freezing cold temperatures.

The case drew the attention of former prime minister Trudeau, who called the allegations ‘extremely troubling.’

Diane Lebouthillier, who was the fisheries minister at the time, committed to an external review of the incident, along with potential systemic racism within DFO.

She said they must work together with Indigenous communities to eradicate systemic racism, wherever it exists.

Annapolis Valley First Nations Chief Gerald Toney called on Ottawa to start the review within the next 100 days, and said what happened to the men was ‘inhumane.’

Meanwhile, Giroux wonders why the two men were fishing during a closed season. He believes the officers were just doing their jobs.

“They are the front line of defence. I take exception to people saying they should be punished for doing their job. I take exception to people playing the racism card against enforcement officers. Conservation is blind.”

There’s no word on when or if the external review will begin under the Carney government.

Giroux welcomes a chat with new Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson on these issues.