Invasive Catfish Workgroup Publications
2020 Invasive Catfish Management Strategy
This management strategy outlines approaches for achieving the invasive catfish outcome and will inform fishery management plans for invasive catfishes throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
View detailsInvasive Catfish Workgroup Membership (2020)
Members list and contact emails for the Invasive Catfish Workgroup, current as of the 2020 workshop.
View detailsInvasive Catfish Workgroup 2019 Updated Roles and Objectives
In 2019, the Invasive Catfish Workgroup worked to re-define priorities, as outlined in the updated Roles and Objectives document.
View detailsUpdated 2014 Invasive Catfish Task Force Report
The purpose of this report is to offer recommendations to address the expansion of invasive catfish populations and their impacts on living resources in the Chesapeake Bay. The report provides decision-makers an overview of the invasion and recommendations necessary to develop coordinated management strategies for the blue and flathead catfish invasion within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
View detailsInvasive Catfish in the Chesapeake Bay
An Invasive Catfish Symposium was held on November 6-7, 2017, at the VCU Rice Rivers Center. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together fishery managers, scientists, and interested stakeholders to discuss the latest science on invasive catfish and progress made on previous recommendations from the Invasive Catfishes Task Force.
View detailsSTAC Review of the Invasive Catfish Task Force Report
The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee's review of the Invasive Catfish Task Force report.
View detailsChesapeake Bay Invasive Catfish Report and Recommendations (2014)
Recommendations of the Invasive Catfish Task Force. Submitted to the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee for peer review.
View detailsAnalysis of Collection Gears for Electrofishing Harvest Efficiency of Blue Catfish in VA Waters
The goal of the project was to design a more effective way to harvest invasive catfish (predominantly blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus) in Virginia waters stunned by low-frequency electrofishing (LFE). LFE was conducted from May 18, 2015 to October 6, 2015; however, no weight was harvested on October 6 when water temperatures were 19oC . None of the data collected from the October 6 trip was used for catch statistics. Seventy-five trips were made during the LFE season; 37 in the James River and 38 in the Pamunkey River (Figure 1). The last day enough blue catfish (BCF) were susceptible to make commercial harvest worthwhile was September 29, 2015 when water temperatures were 23oC. In 2014 only large hooped (handle length about 2.5m long with a 0.4m2 net opening) were used to collect stunned fish. During the 2014 study 155,161lbs of catfish were harvested electrofishing for 5430 minutes resulting in a catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) of 28lbs per minute. In 2015 a total of 334,680lbs of catfish were landed electrofishing for 12850 minutes resulting in a CPUE of 26lbs per minute (Figure 2, Table 1). Three different new harvest techniques methods were attempted to increase the harvest efficacy of invasive BCF compared to regular dip netting: 1) a modified butterfly skimmer (Figure 3), 2) pulling a hoop net along the side of the boat, 3) dragging a surface trawl behind the boat (Figure 4). All three techniques were compared to a chase boat that utilized simple dip nets. The chase boat using dip nets harvested significantly more weight than the new techniques (Table 2). One modification that substantially helped harvest of small fish was using dip nets with smaller openings (0.24m2) and handles 3.5m long. The smaller nets had a wire mesh which allowed fish to be dumped out quicker without hanging in the mesh.
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