Stanley King manages a fishing business in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Stanley often sets out fishing nets late at night.

Standing on the edge of the river, sometimes cold, sometimes rainy, but usually very calm, the other side of the river is all forest

there are no street lights there are no houses we see the moon and the stars on good nights and you're wearing waiters. Yeah wearing waiters getting wet

The water is pretty cold so you try not to stand in it too long or fall in and you know some nights are pretty icy and below zero.

Yeah, it's a it's a wet cold job

Would you describe it as pleasant? Do you enjoy it?

Oh, some nights it's more than pleasant. Some nights it's almost magical,

waiting for these little creatures to come upstream.

The creatures Stanley is waiting for are baby eels.

Once a year, these tiny fish ride ocean currents for thousands of miles,

from the Saragasso Sea to the cold waters of Canada's rivers. Stanley's been fishing for baby eels as long as he can remember and it used to be a

pretty solitary occupation but he says in recent years that started to change.

Last year in 2023 there was at least 25 people fishing on each side of the river.

So upwards of 50, 100 people each night

illegally fishing on every single river we fish and it's not just the rivers that we fish it was

across the whole province.

All of this for baby eels. That's other way to put it all of this for money is the other way I'd

put it these baby eels can fetch over 2,000 Canadian dollars a pound.

With prices like that, there's been a surge in poaching, crime, and even violence.

And the Canadian government is struggling to keep it under control.

Welcome to the journal,

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