Mi’kmaw conservation organizations working to restock Bras d’Or Lake with eels

Two Mi’kmaw conservation organizations are working together to see if they can help repopulate Cape Breton’s Bras d’Or Lake with American eels.

Federal officials have listed the species as threatened and traditional harvesters locally say they’re catching fewer eels, which are an important food and ceremonial staple for the Mi’kmaq.

“There’s no formal assessment for the Bras d’Or Lake’s eels, but our Mi’kmaw food fishers have been saying for some time now that they’re having a hard time finding eel,” said Shelley Denny, senior adviser at the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources (UINR) based in Eskasoni First Nation.

“Their traditional fishing areas are no longer producing those eels or being able to get what they need for food from those areas. So yeah, there is a concern.”

Denny said elder Albert Marshall asked if the fish population could be revived and that’s when the UINR partnered with the Eskasoni Fish and Wildlife Commission to try a pilot project raising elvers, also known as glass eels, for eventual release into the Bras d’Or Lake.

They bought five kilograms of elvers — about 28,000 of them — from a licensed agency that supports treaty protected harvesters.

Despite concerns over declining numbers, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans increased the total allowable catch of elvers this year, but Denny said with the recent controversy around poaching on the mainland, the pilot project had to be done correctly.

“We have paperwork to prove where we got the elvers from,” Denny said.

“It is done through a licensed harvest under certain rules and it is important for us to be able to say that, yeah, we are following rules that pertain to species that have conservation issues, like the American eel.”

Conservation is not only important for the species, but for the Mi’kmaw heritage that eels represent.

“It’s more than food for the Mi’kmaw people,” Denny said.

“There’s a unique relationship that’s … almost like one-on-one when you’re harvesting eels. The eel has been a longtime food staple in wakes and other ceremonies.

“It’s a food that makes you sleepy, kind of like turkey, and it calms people down. It’s just a very important relationship to have to be able to be part of that transition to the spirit world.”

Denny is matter-of-fact when asked how they’ll know if the pilot project has been a success.

“Actually, we won’t. We will have to wait several years to know if it worked or not.

“We don’t start taking eels here till they’re about seven years old. So this is something that we’ve got to wait and see and I know I might not even be around to see it “

Under the partnership, the UINR spent about $6,000 of its own money to buy the elvers and the fish and wildlife organization supplied equipment and expertise.

Staff from both groups take turns feeding the fish, checking on their growth and cleaning their water.

Shae Denny, aquatics manager with UINR, trained in veterinary technology, mostly studying dogs and cats, and never thought she’d be using her skills to monitor the growth of baby eels.

But she’s enjoying it and is aware of the cultural significance of working with elvers to try to restock local waters.

“The past decade or so they’ve been declining and that affects the relationship that we have with American eel, because it prevents us from being out on the land and spearing and harvesting them,” she said.

“So in order to kind of keep that relationship going and have the populations hopefully grow back to where they were before, we’re trying out this pilot project in growing the elvers inside a lab to help prevent those natural mortalities that they may experience in the wild.”

‘Important to take risks in conservation’

Denny said it’s a little unsettling not knowing whether the project will work, but it’s also exciting and worth trying.

“I think it’s important that we take some risks in conservation, because everything that’s been done, it doesn’t seem to be working.”

John T. Johnson, a fishery guardian with Eskasoni Fish and Wildlife, raised some elvers in the past and released a five-year-old eel into the Bras d’Or several years ago.

He has a video on his phone of the release, showing the eel swimming out of a bucket and into the lake.

“I see it swimming away and I just swished my hand in the water and it turned around and came back right to my boot and I got to pet it one last time and off it went,” Johnson said.

“It went right away to the rocks to try to find shelter.”

Johnson said his father likes eating eels and so does his daughter, so working with elvers to try to restock the lake is important for multiple generations.

“I hope this project will help with the population around Cape Breton and have more for the future,” he said.

“My kids will have eels to eat and their kids will have eels to eat, so hopefully it works and continues.”

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