Getting your player ready...
PORTLAND, Maine — George Forni will spend most of next week holed up in his home in Sullivan, Maine, guarded by a new surveillance system and armed with a stun gun and pepper spray as he buys live baby eels for thousands of dollars.
May 31 marks the end of what has become a gold rush for a small group of Maine fisherman — the 10-week season for catching juvenile eels, known as elvers, whose price has increased nearly a hundredfold over the past decade.
Dealers in Maine are paying $2,300 a pound for the thread-like creatures — more than double last year’s price — and Forni is so awash in cash from catching elvers and buying them from other fisherman on behalf of a dealer that he has ramped up his home security.
