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Is anyone else concerned about the explosion of blue catfish in areas of the Bay where they were rarely or ever caught before?
The Chesapeake office of NOAA is conducting research studies on the blue cats and their potential to essentially take over as the dominant fish species in Chesapeake Bay.
As recreational fishermen and women, we usually fret about things like the decreasing stock of menhaden, the over harvesting of oysters, over development of the watershed, and so on. Managing those problems that negatively affect the Bay is crucial of course to at least maintain the Bay's overall health and protect our fisheries for us and commercial folks too.
But these blue cats scare me. What if they do basically take over? Here's a link to an article from NOAA that describes possible solutions; such as aggressively promoting and managing blue cats as a commercial fishery, and other solutions. Part of their research is determining if wild catfish is safe to eat from most parts of the Bay. I hope so.
https://chesapeakebay.noaa.gov/fish-...vasive-catfish
The Chesapeake office of NOAA is conducting research studies on the blue cats and their potential to essentially take over as the dominant fish species in Chesapeake Bay.
As recreational fishermen and women, we usually fret about things like the decreasing stock of menhaden, the over harvesting of oysters, over development of the watershed, and so on. Managing those problems that negatively affect the Bay is crucial of course to at least maintain the Bay's overall health and protect our fisheries for us and commercial folks too.
But these blue cats scare me. What if they do basically take over? Here's a link to an article from NOAA that describes possible solutions; such as aggressively promoting and managing blue cats as a commercial fishery, and other solutions. Part of their research is determining if wild catfish is safe to eat from most parts of the Bay. I hope so.
https://chesapeakebay.noaa.gov/fish-...vasive-catfish