HoCo Seafood Wholesaler Helps Save The Bay By Harvesting Catfish

ELKRIDGE, MD — The Chesapeake Bay's health and well-being has become threatened by the blue catfish. To alleviate the damage, a Howard County seafood wholesaler has capitalized upon the abundance of blue catfish while working to save the Bay.

J.J. McDonnell has been harvesting and selling the blue catfish as a dish to be served in homes and at restaurants.

“It’s about doing something good for the Chesapeake Bay,” George McManus, company president, told WJZ. “It’s actually a very good eating fish. It’s mild-tasting, and it’s affordable."

Blue catfish grow quickly, live a long time and reproduce quite often, which depletes other valuable food sources in the Bay like blue crabs, striped bass and oysters, WJZ reports.

“We look at it as an opportunity rather than a problem,” McManus said.

The company sends vats with ice packed in its own refrigerated trucks to fishermen and once full, head straight to the company's seafood distribution site in Elkridge. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources said the efforts by seafood wholesalers like J.J. McDonnell help protect the bay's fragile ecosystem.

Read more about this initiative here.