PORTLAND — A new stock assessment of American eels has concluded the eel population is technically depleted in U.S. waters.

Baby eels, known as elvers, provide a valuable fishery to hundreds of Maine fishermen, who catch them each spring as they migrate up Maine rivers. Fishermen this spring were receiving up to $2,000 a pound for their catch.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is based in Virginia and regulates the eel fishery, said today the population along the eastern seaboard is at or near historically low levels due to a combination of overfishing, habitat loss, predation, environmental changes, disease, toxins and contaminants, food web alterations and turbine mortality.

A commission committee is being asked to develop management proposals that could include more elver fishing restrictions in the future.