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Tag: blue catfish

  • These fish are everywhere. Maryland only wants them on your dinner plate – WTOP News

    These fish are everywhere. Maryland only wants them on your dinner plate – WTOP News

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    The push is on to get blue catfish on more restaurant menus, dinner plates, and anywhere else that can keep the population manageable (if not eradicated) as they continue to overtake the Chesapeake Bay, eating almost everything in its sight.

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    Can Maryland convince you to eat fish that aren’t native to the bay?

    While there have been improvements, there remains a fragile ecosystem within the Chesapeake Bay. Among the growing problems are some of the animals that live and swim in those waters.

    That’s because they’re not supposed to be in those waters but have found their way in and really enjoy it.

    There are doubts in the state of Maryland that the invasive blue catfish will ever disappear. But the push is on to get it on more restaurant menus, dinner plates, and anywhere else that can keep the population manageable (if not eradicated) as they keep swimming north from the Virginia end of the Chesapeake Bay, eating almost everything in its sight.

    “It’s kind of the perfect invasive species,” said Chris Jones, whose job with Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources is to focus on invasive species like the blue catfish and the Chesapeake Channa, also known as the snakehead fish.

    People don’t necessarily think of a blue catfish as native to the Chesapeake region, so when it’s probably not something one thinks about ordering. The state is hoping to change that.

    Maryland is launching a campaign aimed at making the blue catfish more popular as a meal. The effort includes publishing recipes and marketing that says your dinner makes a difference for the Bay and those who work on it.

    At the same time, Jones is aware that the blue catfish problem probably can’t be eaten away, no matter how many you order, so they’re also investigating future uses of the blue catfish in pet food and for fertilizing compost.

    “This is a great, delicious meat that can be cooked so many different ways and (for) so many different things, and provide a good, nutritious, delicious meal for folks,” said Jones. “This is a fish that’s commercially, recreationally viable. They’re delicious. They are abundant as they can be, and it provides a unique opportunity for watermen to make a living with something different, to fill some income or subsidize some of the other stuff that they tend to do.”

    Scientists have found lots of animals, including rock fish, inside the bellies of blue catfish. But one of their favorite things to eat are the blue crabs that swim on the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

    “Right out here in this Chester River, we didn’t have blue catfish five years ago. Now, we have commercial fishery based in the river. So it’s not very good,” said Jason Ruth, the owner of Harris Seafood Company on Kent Island. “I don’t know where the future is going to be in it, but we need to at least get it in check so they can keep the balance of all the other species that are here as well.”

    Next door to the processing plant that Ruth operates sits Harris Crab House. And on the menu is a fried blue catfish po’boy sandwich.

    “The fish is great,” said Ruth, who said it’s similar to perch, which are in abundance in the bay and also among an angler’s favorite to eat, though also really easy to catch. “It’s a nice, beautiful white fish. It’s flaky. It cooks up easy. It’s a cheap protein, and that’s what you need in today’s time.”

    He hopes the fish will be featured on even more menus, and the state is trying to help.

    “They are estimating that blue catfish are eating about 400 metric tons of blue crabs in a year, which is about 4% of the harvest of the state of Virginia,” said Jones. “But then consider that harvest crabs are five inches or larger. These blue catfish are working on juvenile crab. So 400 metric tons of juvenile crabs is a significantly larger quantity of crab than eating five inch, six inch, eight-inch crabs. So it’s become a huge problem.”

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    John Domen

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  • ‘They’re everywhere’: Maryland seeks to reduce supply of tasty, invasive blue catfish – WTOP News

    ‘They’re everywhere’: Maryland seeks to reduce supply of tasty, invasive blue catfish – WTOP News

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    Blue catfish grow to large sizes, are tasty to eat and can be easily caught in the majority of Maryland’s rivers — the problem is they’re considered invasive, locally, and are a threat to other native fish and aquatic life.

    Blue catfish grow to large sizes, are tasty to eat and can be easily caught in the majority of Maryland’s rivers — the problem is they’re considered invasive and are a threat to other native fish and aquatic life.

    Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources is urging people fishing in the area to target blue catfish.

    Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources is urging people looking to do some local fishing to target blue catfish, which are an invasive species locally. (Courtesy Stephen Badger, Maryland Department of Natural Resources)

    “Catch and keep as many as you want, any sizes,” said Branson Williams, the department’s invasive fishes program manager. “They’re really a tasty fish, and we’re encouraging people to eat them.”

    Blue catfish are native to midwestern river basins, including the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Rio Grande rivers, Williams said.

    The freshwater fish were introduced in Virginia during the 1970s to create a new sport fishery, according to the MDNR’s website.

    “They were stocked in Virginia and across the country to form these recreational fisheries, because they reach large sizes and they taste good,” Williams said. “The world record is 143 pounds, out of Virginia.”

    However, they don’t just thrive in freshwater rivers.

    “Turns out they do pretty well in brackish waters, so they’ve spread throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed in the past 20 years or so,” Williams said. “They now occupy all tributaries of the Bay, and even the Bay proper, in the upper bay and middle bay.”

    Not only has the blue catfish expanded its range, but also its abundance: “They’re everywhere,” Williams said.

    Catfish eat a lot of different aquatic animals, including ones that are important to Maryland.

    “They do eat a significant amount of blue crab, white perch, Atlantic menhaden, which are species that have cultural and commercial importance to the region,” Williams said. “Blue catfish are associated with decreased abundance of white catfish, which are our native catfish.”

    Williams said blue catfish are so prominent they can be caught in a variety of ways, off boats and by dropping a line off a riverbank.

    “People use a wide variety of baits to catch them, everything from fresh cut fish, like fresh Atlantic menhaden — blue catfish eat chicken livers,” Williams said. “I’ve heard of people soaking chicken breast in garlic, and different flavors of Jell-O to catch them.”

    The MDNR offers specific locations with large blue catfish populations on its website.

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Neal Augenstein

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