While there have been improvements, there remains a fragile ecosystem within the Chesapeake Bay. Among the growing problems are some of the animals that live and swim in those waters.

That’s because they’re not supposed to be in those waters but have found their way in and really enjoy it.

There are doubts in the state of Maryland that the invasive blue catfish will ever disappear. But the push is on to get it on more restaurant menus, dinner plates, and anywhere else that can keep the population manageable (if not eradicated) as they keep swimming north from the Virginia end of the Chesapeake Bay, eating almost everything in its sight.

“It’s kind of the perfect invasive species,” said Chris Jones, whose job with Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources is to focus on invasive species like the blue catfish and the Chesapeake Channa, also known as the snakehead fish.

People don’t necessarily think of a blue catfish as native to the Chesapeake region, so when it’s probably not something one thinks about ordering. The state is hoping to change that.

Maryland is launching a campaign aimed at making the blue catfish more popular as a meal. The effort includes publishing recipes and marketing that says your dinner makes a difference for the Bay and those who work on it.

At the same time, Jones is aware that the blue catfish problem probably can’t be eaten away, no matter how many you order, so they’re also investigating future uses of the blue catfish in pet food and for fertilizing compost.

“This is a great, delicious meat that can be cooked so many different ways and (for) so many different things, and provide a good, nutritious, delicious meal for folks,” said Jones. “This is a fish that’s commercially, recreationally viable. They’re delicious. They are abundant as they can be, and it provides a unique opportunity for watermen to make a living with something different, to fill some income or subsidize some of the other stuff that they tend to do.”

Scientists have found lots of animals, including rock fish, inside the bellies of blue catfish. But one of their favorite things to eat are the blue crabs that swim on the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

“Right out here in this Chester River, we didn’t have blue catfish five years ago. Now, we have commercial fishery based in the river. So it’s not very good,” said Jason Ruth, the owner of Harris Seafood Company on Kent Island. “I don’t know where the future is going to be in it, but we need to at least get it in check so they can keep the balance of all the other species that are here as well.”

Next door to the processing plant that Ruth operates sits Harris Crab House. And on the menu is a fried blue catfish po’boy sandwich.

“The fish is great,” said Ruth, who said it’s similar to perch, which are in abundance in the bay and also among an angler’s favorite to eat, though also really easy to catch. “It’s a nice, beautiful white fish. It’s flaky. It cooks up easy. It’s a cheap protein, and that’s what you need in today’s time.”

He hopes the fish will be featured on even more menus, and the state is trying to help.

“They are estimating that blue catfish are eating about 400 metric tons of blue crabs in a year, which is about 4% of the harvest of the state of Virginia,” said Jones. “But then consider that harvest crabs are five inches or larger. These blue catfish are working on juvenile crab. So 400 metric tons of juvenile crabs is a significantly larger quantity of crab than eating five inch, six inch, eight-inch crabs. So it’s become a huge problem.”

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore joined former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole on Tuesday to announce that Maryland will work with her foundation to support military and veteran caregivers.

Moore, who served as a paratrooper and captain in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, said joining the Elizabeth Dole Foundation Hidden Heroes campaign will help raise awareness about resources available for families of veterans and to expedite those resources to them.

“We want our Hidden Heroes to know that Maryland sees you,” Moore, a Democrat, said. “We are committed to providing the resources you need to deliver the care our service members and veterans deserve.”

Dole, who served as a Republican North Carolina senator from 2003 to 2009, established the foundation in 2012 to help the spouses, parents, family members, and friends who care for the nation’s wounded, ill, or injured veterans. She was the wife of Kansas U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, a longtime leader in Congress and World War II veteran who died in 2021.

She joined Moore at a news conference to hold a proclamation announcing Maryland’s participation in her foundation’s Hidden Heroes campaign.

Steve Schwab, the CEO of the campaign, said Hidden Heroes works with community leaders around the nation to address challenges that people who help veterans face. He thanked Moore for efforts he has taken during his governorship to help veterans and their families, and he said he hoped the step taken by Maryland will become a model that other governors will follow.

“It takes a coalition approach to do this work,” Schwab said.

First lady Dawn Moore said initiatives to help veterans and their families was personal to her, having been a military spouse.

“It is our responsibility as a state to support the whole family and that’s why Maryland is leaning in,” she said.

The Hidden Heroes campaign was launched in 2016 by Dole and chaired by actor Tom Hanks. It seeks solutions for the challenges and long-term needs caregivers face, and connects them to one another.

The campaign works with individuals, businesses, communities, and civic, faith and government leaders. It represents a network of more than 200 communities nationwide committed to increasing awareness and support.

By joining the campaign, Maryland aims to provide support for more than 150,000 military and veteran caregivers across the state, the governor’s office said.

A federal judge has ruled that Maryland can’t ban the concealed carry of firearms at restaurants that serve alcohol, in private buildings without the owner’s permission and within 1,000 feet of a public demonstration — effectively scaling back a gun-control law passed last year.

That law, the Gun Safety Act of 2023, was a reaction to a U.S. Supreme Court case that forced the state to drop most of its hurdles for obtaining a concealed-carry permit in Maryland. Unable to limit people from getting permits, lawmakers turned to limiting where those permits would be valid to carry handguns.

The law was given the designation that year as Senate Bill 1, an indication of its importance to Democratic leaders in the General Assembly.

The sweeping law banned permit holders from carrying concealed handguns in schools, colleges, health care facilities, government buildings, polling places, power plants, stadiums, museums, racetracks, casinos, at establishments that sell alcohol and on private property where the owner has not given permission.

The state also has a law against carrying a concealed gun within 1,000 feet of demonstrations and rallies.

Gun-rights advocates immediately filed court challenges and last fall, a federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the ban on concealed carry at those three areas — establishments serving alcohol, on private property where the owner hasn’t given permission and within 1,000 feet of a public demonstration.

A ruling from U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III on Friday makes the block on those portions of the law permanent, while upholding other aspects of the law.

Mark Pennak of the advocacy group Maryland Shall Issue said the judge’s ruling “makes clear that the legislature overreached” when it passed the slate of restrictions on carrying guns.

Pennak, who is a lawyer but not involved in the case, said he was disappointed that the judge did not go further and wipe out more of the restrictions.

The Senate’s lead sponsor on the 2023 bill, Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher, said he was “deeply gratified” by the ruling and called law “just plain common sense.“

”The United States District Court upheld 99% of Senate Bill 1,” the Montgomery County Democrat said.

Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat whose office defended the constitutionality and legality of the law, could appeal the ruling to a federal appeals court. Brown’s office declined to comment on the ruling on Tuesday.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who supported the measure and signed it into law, did not immediately have a comment on the ruling.

This breaking news story will be updated.

Baltimore Banner reporter Lee O. Sanderlin contributed to this report.