How Did Blue Catfish Get To The Chesapeake Bay
Since then they have reached numbers beyond what anyone imagined in rivers from the James to the Potomac and they had begun spreading to other places in recent years.
How did blue catfish get to the chesapeake bay. What Chefs are saying. Flathead catfish can reach sizes in excess of 100 pounds but much smaller specimens have been encountered in the Chesapeake Bay region. Sep 19 2016 Jamie on starboard hauls in the line pulling one blue catfish after another out of the water.
May 14 2015 Blue catfish is a newcomer to Washington stores and restaurants its sustainably caught in the Chesapeake Bay and its probably tastier than any catfish youve ever had. Chefs in the area have been embracing this. Blue catfish were introduced to Virginias James York and Rappahannock rivers for sport fishing in the early 1970s.
Jun 03 2019 Virginia officials introduced blue catfish to that states rivers in the 1970s and they have slowly spread up the bay from there. This is simply due to its diet of shellfish and other prized Chesapeake fish. So far the chief weapon weve arrayed against the fish is catch and eat.
Unique fishery of invasive Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus supporting generations of watermen who depend on the Chesapeake for their livlihood. Chesapeake Bay Blue Catfish and increasing consumer demand to help control the fishs numbers. Thats because unlike the farmed variety which eat a diet of corn-and-soy feed blue cats feed on medium-size fish like menhaden and white perch.
Unfortunately the relatively low mortality rate large body size wide range of species preyed upon and success as a predator has resulted in the blue catfish being considered a problematic invasive species in. Mar 20 2018 If you catch a catfish in Chesapeake Bay theres a good chance its an invader from the Mississippi River drainageprobably a blue catfish though it could be a less common flathead catfish. The fish at least three feet long blue on top with white bellies flop around.
Which is good for developing the fishs flavor but bad for the bay. Aug 09 2019 Once a fun 40-lb catch for an angler the blue catfish is now overly abundant and growing smaller. It is a long-lived fish and can grow to 100 pounds.