N.S. news: Federal government arrests dozens for illegal elver fishing [Video]

A string of recent arrests for illegal fishing is an early sign the federal government has increased enforcement since it closed the baby eel fishery, says one Nova Scotia commercial fisher.

Stanley King, of Atlantic Elver Fishery, reacted Thursday to news that the federal Fisheries Department arrested five people from Maine for illegal fishing in the Meteghan, N.S., area of Digby County last weekend.

Department officials have “upped their game,” said King, who has been among the commercial fishers who have criticized the federal government in recent years for what they said was a soft approach to poaching. But he cautioned that cases of unauthorized fishing could still rise as the population of the tiny fish known as elvers increases through the spring with more favourable coastal tides and warmer waters.

Due to what it said was violence and intimidation on the water in the lucrative elver industry, Ottawa closed …