Baby Eel Gold Rush Creates Huge Windfalls For Maine Fishermen

Flipping houses and investing in tech are so five minutes ago- have you heard about the baby eel gold rush going on up in Maine?

Chances are you never thought a circumstance like the baby eel gold rush was in the cards for fisherman (a vocation generally thought to be humble not a get-rich-quick scheme), but as it turns out, baby eels are really a hot commodity right now. Just ten years ago, juvenile eels (also known as “elvers”) weren’t so expensive.

But the baby eel gold rush has seen the price of the small, thread-like creatures increase more than a hundredfold. And the profit is such that those dealing in baby eels have to beef up their home security and stock pepper spray and guns for protection.

Even since just last year, the baby eel gold rush has doubled prices per pound for elvers, which is currently hovering around $2,300. One lucky baby eel dealer, Richard Forni, explains that demand out of China for baby eels- due to the fact that eels do not reproduce in captivity- is so off the charts that he can make thousands of dollars a night trading in the creatures:

“This year for two and a half months is better than any three years I’ve ever worked in my life…”

“…all of a sudden it’s a gold mine. China wants them that bad, and we’re the only place that can get them.”

How many thousands? Reuters reports that Forni himself has netted $12,500 in a single evening due to the baby eel gold rush.