Maine's highly lucrative baby eel fishery is being shut down two weeks early due to concerns about illegal sales. The elver fishery is tightly regulated to deter poaching because of the high value of the baby fish. "The future of this lucrative fishery is now in question," state Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher in a statement. The illegal sales circumvent a swipe-card system used to track elver sales in the state, Nichols said. The closure of the fishery is a blow to law-abiding fishermen, said Darrell Young, co-director of the Maine Elver Fishermen Association.

Source: ABC News May 23, 2018 20:31 UTC