Blue Catfish ?

[AndyS]

I'm reading on Social Media posts coming from the Delaware river the amount of Blue Catfish being caught, aren't these the fish destroying Chesapeake Bay ??? If so now they are in Delaware Bay soon to be in Sandy Hook/Raritan Bay ???

[bulletbob]

Much of the chesapeake is very low salinity.The upper bay is loaded with fresh water fish. Its brackish for half its length,and Blue Cats tolerate brackish water. Raritan and SH bays, are salt water .. The rivers that feed them are salt or brackish for miles.. I have never seen a fresh water fish caught in Raritan or SH Bay.. I doubt Blue Cats would survive there.. Even if they did, Brown Sharks would eat a lot of . So no you won't be hooking any Blue Cats while fluking in the bay.... bob

[Broad Bill]

But we can thank the Commonwealth of Virginia for introducing blue catfish into the Chesapeake Bay System without understanding the potential consequences on the bay and indigenous stocks while creating an enormous imbalance in the ecosystem. The same imbalance they created while making millions from allowing Cooke Inc. / Omega Protein to ravage the bunker population within the bay causing further extreme consequential damages to the bay ecosystem and striped bass spawning grounds that northern states and the stock are paying the price for.

Here's the best part per the article in the attached link.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ow+m...t=gws-wiz-serp

Omega Protein does not pay Virginia a specific fee to net menhaden; instead, its fishing operations are subject to regulations and permits from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and state agencies, with any monetary contributions being part of broader permitting or compliance processes that are not publicly detailed. While the company profits from harvesting menhaden, a public resource, there is no record of direct payments to the state for the right to fish in the Bay.

What a bunch of political rhetoric and bullshit which ASMFC not only oversees but allows to exist and profits from. And we wonder why the recreational sector routinely gets the proverbial short end of the stick. ASMFC's charter is to manage and protect fisheries and waters 0-3 miles from shore and instead allows and profit from regulations which accomplish the exact opposite.