McGill University
M.Sc. candidate
Supervisor: Gordon Hickey
NA
Start: 2024-08-28
End: 2026-04-30
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Project

Out of Our Depth: The Social-Ecological Fit of American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) Elver Fisheries and Conservation in Canada
American eel (Anguilla rostrata) is ecologically important to many freshwater ecosystems across North America; however, populations have been declining over the last several decades. Due to overseas demand for eel there has been a boom of the elver fishery in the coastal rivers and creeks of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick since 2018. In 2022, the price of elvers reached a high of $5,000 per kilogram. The extremely lucrative nature of the elver fishery led to an explosion of legal and illegal fishing, leading to an eventual closing of the elver fishing season in 2020, 2023, and 2024. In my master's research, I intend to measure the degree of 'fit' in the social-ecological system of American eel management in Maritime Canada by building a Bayesian belief network. I will also be investigating the communication between actors in the American eel management network.

Keywords

Social Ecological Systems, Conservation, Fisheries, Informal Economies