Lawmakers in the U.S. state of Virginia have introduced a bill to eliminate restrictions on harvesting of blue catfish, an invasive species that has devastated ecosystems in the Chesapeake Bay region.
Since their introduction to the Chesapeake Bay as a recreational fish in the late 1960s, predatory blue catfish have come to dominate waters in Virginia and neighboring Maryland.
“We are beginning to see disturbing trends in both our commercial fishery landings and our survey data,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore explained in a letter seeking federal assistance in 2023. “Since 2012, landings of seven of Maryland’s marquee commercial fishery species which share habitat with invasive fishes at some point in their life cycle have declined between 27 percent and 91 percent.”
The U.S. Department of Commerce ultimately denied Moore’s request for a fisher disaster determination, claiming the fish have not had a big enough impact on the state’s commercial fisheries.
Governments in both Virginia and Maryland …
