06-03-2014, 11:13 AM
What's the world's most expensive sea food? It could be live baby American eels, at $2,600 to the pound. The toothpick-size eels are worth about a dollar a piece. Four lucky Maine residents were selected in a lottery recently from 5,200 applicants to go after the eels this spring with dip nets. Along with four other netters who use a different type of net, they will split a fishery that could reach $40 million if the run comes in as expected.
The baby eels are shipped to Asia live as stock for eel farms. The adults are a high-dollar food throughout much of the Far East. According to Maine's Department of Marine Resources, fully grown American eels migrate from bodies of fresh water in Maine to the Sargasso Sea -- a large area east of the Bahamas and south of Bermuda -- where they spawn. After spawning, the eels die. Their larvae drift in the ocean before being carried north to places such as Maine. The larvae transform into glass eels as they approach land. When they enter Maine estuaries and rivers, they become known as elvers. Full grown, the eels can reach more than 3 feet long and weights over 9 pounds.
Read the full story by reporter Dennis Hoey here in the Portland Press Herald; http://www.pressherald.com/news/overcomi...02-14.html
The baby eels are shipped to Asia live as stock for eel farms. The adults are a high-dollar food throughout much of the Far East. According to Maine's Department of Marine Resources, fully grown American eels migrate from bodies of fresh water in Maine to the Sargasso Sea -- a large area east of the Bahamas and south of Bermuda -- where they spawn. After spawning, the eels die. Their larvae drift in the ocean before being carried north to places such as Maine. The larvae transform into glass eels as they approach land. When they enter Maine estuaries and rivers, they become known as elvers. Full grown, the eels can reach more than 3 feet long and weights over 9 pounds.
Read the full story by reporter Dennis Hoey here in the Portland Press Herald; http://www.pressherald.com/news/overcomi...02-14.html