ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Admiring the blue catfish's glistening grey complexion you may wonder why anyone would encourage you to eat one. But there's a whole campaign behind it aimed at protecting Maryland's beloved blue crabs.
The Department of Agriculture is partnering with chefs to put the invasive blue catfish on their menus as part of an initiative to reduce their population in the Chesapeake Bay.
At Boatyard Bar and Grill in Eastport, the blue catfish is in the rotation of daily specials and featured in two dishes on the menu, a dip and a po' boy.
"It's an amazing fish. It eats in the entire water column. It's not just a bottom feeder. It has so much potential in the culinary world and the restaurant world," said Scott Harrison, chef at Boatyard Bar and Grill.
We watched as Chef Harrison demonstrated how to make his blue catfish po' boy.
"We got our toasted Omarosa roll. Got some delicious BMW watercress right here. Layer that up nicely. Couple of fresh tomatoes. Some catfish. Cornmeal crusted fresh caught yesterday, delicious... And we french fries and a little bit of Cajun Remulade to top everything off," Harrison said.
The blue catfish being on menus encourages people like fishmonger Pat Mahomey to catch the fish. For 45 years, he's fished in the bay, witnessing the growing impact of blue catfish.
"Anywhere from crab pots and gill nets to pound nets, they're definitely in these waters now and they're causing a lot of havoc on the crab," Mahomey said.
He can see firsthand the damage blue catfish are doing to Maryland's blue crabs.
"When we cut these catfish open, they're full of 20 to 30 small crabs this time of year that's eating them every day. So you do the biomass times the crab population, it's not a good thing," Mahomey said.
When I visited Mahomey's shop, he had several blue catfish weighing over 30 pounds.
"So there's any way to slow these things down, we gotta work together as you can see here, the only way to beat them is to eat them. And that's what we say here," Mahomey said.
The initiative to get people eating more catfish has been going for about three years, pushed by the Department of Agriculture.
"Blue catfish not native to the bay are eating our blue crabs. They're eating white perch. They're eating a lot of things that we love. So we got to eat them to get them out of the bay," said Mathew Scales from the Department of Agriculture.
The campaign hopes to reduce the estimated 100 million blue catfish in the bay. Progress is slow but steady.
"I think it is improving, but I think we still have some ways to go. We're not going to see an improvement within a couple of years. It's going to take some time, right?" Scales said.
So the message is clear: save the crabs, eat a blue catfish.
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