Baby eel prices drop as Maine fishermen grapple with virus

The price of one of the most lucrative marine resources in Maine baby eels has tumbled as fishermen grapple with the difficulty of working around constraints caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Maine is the only U.S. state with a significant fishery for the valuable baby eels, called elvers, used by Asian aquaculture companies as seed stock.

The elvers are eventually raised to maturity for use in Japanese cuisine, some of which is sold in the U.S. market.

Elvers were often worth less than $200 per pound until 2011, when international sources of the eels dried up and the Maine price jumped to nearly $900 per pound. They've been worth more than $800 every year since, and hit a high price of more than $2,360 in 2018.

Some fishermen call the elvers wriggling gold, but this year, the catch is only selling for about $500 per pound.

Industry members are blaming concerns about the coronavirus for the plummeting prices.

Dealers aren't paying as much for the elvers this year, in part because .