BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 13, 2021
Each spring, when great masses of baby eels swim from the sea up rivers and streams in Maine toward freshwater, roughly 24 million of the small, clear and spaghetti-like creatures are caught in nets, sold and shipped off to supply the world seafood market, mainly as unagi on sushi menus. Beyond that, not much is known about American eels in Maine or elsewhere along western shores of the Atlantic Ocean, except that Maine’s annual springtime baby eel fishery is collectively worth about $17 million to the hundreds of Mainers who catch them.