PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine is one of two states now using electronic swipe cards to record sales and catches in its elver fisheries.
In the baby eel fishery best known for ballooned prices, marine resource officials say the new system is crucial to applying tighter regulations that include catch limits and rules to cut down on poaching.
The cards have magnetic strips encoded for each fisherman. Each transaction using the cards becomes part of the dealers’ required daily reports in a process state officials say is far more efficient than the old method.
Alaska also uses the system, though fisheries departments have filed catches electronically for years.
Maine’s elver fishing season opened Sunday.
