Blue catfish are a big, slimy problem in Virginia.
The invasive species has spent the past five decades working its way into almost every local waterway and threatens to upend the ecosystem.
Virginia officials are weighing a new way to cut down on the population by letting anglers go after them.
The Virginia Board of Wildlife Resources will soon decide whether to remove the recreational catch limit on blue catfish.
The change would apply to the Rappahannock and York rivers, as well as portions of the James below the freshwater-saltwater transition zone.
Blue catfish, which are native to the Gulf coast and central U.S., were originally brought to Virginia by the same agency now trying to reduce the population.
The Department of Wildlife Resources introduced the species into the James and Rappahannock rivers in 1974, followed by additional stockings in the York.
The goal at the time was to create a “recreational trophy fishery” to support anglers as the striped bass population was crashing coastwide, DWR states on its website.
Once established, blue catfish exploded in Virginia, preying on native critters such as blue crabs.
“Things went a little haywire,” said Chris Moore, Virginia executive director with the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “We're in a situation now where they really don't have a lot of predators except for themselves, and they have just expanded exponentially.”
Virginia Commonwealth University estimated that blue catfish now account for up to 75% of the total weight of fish in some local rivers.
“Having a single species representing that much biomass is not a great thing,” Moore said.
State officials say the omnivorous species’ diet varies depending on the water body, but most often includes small fish, crayfish, mollusks and plant matter. Larger blue catfish primarily consume other fish.
In recent years, Virginia has started to invest in strategies to cut back blue catfish, primarily by trying to get more people to catch and eat them.
“Because blue catfish are a high-protein, low-fat fish with strong consumer appeal when properly marketed and prepared, their abundance also presents an economic opportunity,” a state work group recently wrote in a report about the issue.
The state has doled out grants to seafood processors to expand those opportunities. Virginia’s also the only jurisdiction in the bay watershed to allow commercial electrofishing of blue catfish, where harvesters use mild electrical currents to stun them.
A bill passed by the General Assembly earlier this year, introduced by Newport News Del. Shelly Simonds, would have required the state to remove the one-fish daily catch limit. But Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed it after concerns from charter captains about losing business.
The current proposal from DWR attempts to find a compromise by limiting the change to certain areas, Moore said.
Members of the public can comment on the proposed regulation at the wildlife board’s meetings on Oct. 22 and 23.
