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Giant blue catfish gobble up other seafood in the Chesapeake Bay

Blue catfish can grow to 100 pounds.
Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Blue catfish can grow to 100 pounds.

Back in the 70’s, Virginia began stocking tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay with blue catfish. The idea was to give recreational fishermen a new challenge, but the blue catfish population grew faster than folks could catch them, and they’re now gobbling up seafood popular with people.

“You know when they bring a fish in, and it goes into the processing line, some fish may be full of blue crab, baby clams, baby oysters, they have rockfish in their stomachs," says Michael Schwarz, director of the Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center. He figures there could be a billion pounds of blue catfish just waiting to be caught.

“Anything you put on a hook – if they’re there, they will bite that hook,” he reports.

And we should do something, as they’re taking a toll on other populations.

“Local processing facilities went from having spots and rockfish and croaker and all these typical fish that we know of and fish for in the Chesapeake and have for hundreds of years," Schwarz explains. "They’re not even being caught anymore commercially.”

The good news, he says, is that blue catfish is popping up on restaurant menus, and reviews are good.

"We’ve had some high level corporate folks from these large international seafood companies, and we’ve taken them to a local seafood diner, and they’ve prepared the blue catfish for them, and they were absolutely dumbfounded. These are as high a quality of white marine fish as we have in Iceland or Norway.”

The Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center has helped to organize events and campaigns to promote blue catfish consumption.
Keri Rouse
/
Virginia Tech
The Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center has helped to organize events and campaigns to promote blue catfish consumption.

He thinks Virginia could build a new industry around blue catfish.

“One of the bottlenecks is getting + more processors processing this fish – freezing equipment, cold storage, all those types of infrastructure are very capital intensive.”

Bills now being considered in Richmond would provide free fishing licenses for those who catch blue catfish, lift limits on how many can be caught and create contests for those who catch the most. Schwarz warns, however, that fishermen should be careful, since these fish can weigh up to a hundred pounds.

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief