Invasive blue catfish are a big problem in the Chesapeake Bay. Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced $6 million in grant funding to turn those blue cats into food. The funding will be available to help seafood processors ramp up production of blue catfish products.
Additionally, USDA and the Maryland Department of Agriculture are launching a one-year pilot program to purchase up to $2 million worth of blue catfish meat to feed families in need through food banks and other food distribution programs.
Introduction of Invasive Blue Catfish
These two programs are the latest salvo in a battle against blue catfish that has raged since it became apparent the species is harming native ecosystems and fisheries of the bay and its tributaries. Blue catfish are native to the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio River basins in the central United States. They were introduced to the James and Rappahannock rivers by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources in the mid-1970s.
Under the assumption that salt water would prohibit the spread of a freshwater species, Virginia stocked blue catfish to give anglers something to fish for as numbers of striped bass declined. They unleashed a scourge that now threatens the region’s iconic fisheries. Blue catfish now inhabit every tributary to the Chesapeake and the bay itself. Branson Williams, invasive fisheries program manager at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said in some waters blue cats make up 70 percent of the total biomass.
The Blue Cat Threat
With the ability to grow larger than 100 pounds, blue catfish are voracious feeders that have been blamed for declining populations of everything from baitfish to blue crabs and stripers.
read more at sportfishingmag.com.
