Document Type
Report
Department/Program
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
VIMS Department/Program
Marine Advisory Program (MAP)
Publication Date
2017
Series
Fishery Resource Grant FRG 2016- 03
Abstract
The blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus was first introduced to Virginia tidal waters in the 1974 and currently inhabit all major Virginia tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay (Jenkins and Burkhead 1994, Schloesser et al. 2011). More recently blue catfish have spread to Maryland waters and are multiplying at an alarming rate. The James River tributary has the largest number of blue catfish (Schloesser et al. 2011) in Virginia. The amount of blue catfish inhabiting the James River in unknown but is likely to be over five million (Fabrizio et al. 2009, Greenlee 2011) and blue catfish are estimated to be over 75% of the freshwater-tidal biomass (Schloesser et al. 2011). While supporting a trophy hook-and-line fishery (Greenlee 2011), management and conservation groups are concerned about the high number of blue catfish in the James River and Chesapeake Bay (Fabrizio et al. 2011, Schlosser et al. 2011). There is commercial interest for blue catfish harvest, and a management plan considered by Fabrizio et al. (2011) was to create a commercial fishery targeting “small (less than 32” total length) blue catfish”.
Keywords
Blue catfish, invasive species
Recommended Citation
Trice IV, G. (2017) Describe if Commercial Low-Frequency Electrofishing Affects the Catch of Blue Catfish Hoop-Net Fishery. Fishery Resource Grant FRG 2016- 03. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/reports/2127
