Diners gathered at a Maryland museum to feast on an unexpected delicacy: an invasive species.
As Southern Maryland News reported, the St. Mary’s Chamber of Commerce served blue catfish in four different preparations at a catered dinner.
The dinner was designed to raise awareness of the spread of blue catfish, remove some of the fish from the population, and showcase how eating certain invasive species can be a delicious way to help our environment.
“They’re invading our waters — but they’re delicious,” the chamber of commerce said in a Facebook post promoting the event.
When introduced into a new environment, invasive species can cause significant harm. They often outcompete native plants and wildlife for valuable resources such as food and water, and they quickly spread to overtake those native species and alter the balance of that ecosystem.
Blue catfish, for example, are native to the Mississippi River basin but were introduced into Virginia in the 1970s as a sport fish. They quickly spread, however, and are now common in many states, including Maryland.
Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Atticks told attendees at the dinner that more than 100,000 tons of catfish have been found in the Chesapeake Bay. The fish eat oysters and other mollusks that traditionally help filter the bay’s waters.
Justin Cheseldine-Gass, owner of a fishing company, told diners that blue catfish account for 65% of the bottom of the Potomac River.
Officials in Maryland and Virginia have worked together on legislation to incentivize catching blue catfish, and many officials and chefs have advocated eating the invasive fish.
At the dinner, Atticks said working to remove blue catfish is just one step the state is taking to preserve Chesapeake Bay.
“There’s always work to do better by the bay,” he said. “We’re improving things and making sure practices on farms are improving and that we’re keeping nutrients on the farm instead of runoff.”
Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more and waste less, and don’t miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
