BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 22, 2022
Warm weather this spring may boost catches of lucrative baby eels in Maine, but the ongoing effects of the covid pandemic still could hamper the global availability of the popular seafood item. An abundance of eels during Maine’s 11-week elver season, which starts Tuesday, may not be able to overcome pandemic-related difficulties in shipping the eels to eastern Asia, where most elvers caught in Maine are raised to adulthood in aquaculture ponds in China and then sold into the enormous Japanese seafood market. China’s “COVID zero” policy has resulted in the country locking down areas where outbreaks of the disease are detected, which could inhibit the ability to ship Maine elvers to Chinese aquaculture sites.