If you missed the news, the state awarded $250,000 to Sea Farms, Inc., a family-owned company in Mathews County, to process blue catfish. The award was the first in the Blue Catfish Processing, Flash Freezing, and Infrastructure Grant Program (enabling legislation). Sea Farms was one of seven applicants.
Virginia Mercury’s Blue catfish are invasive in Virginia. The state is paying to get more of them on people’s tables. gives a brief history of blue cats in Virginia ― they were introduced to eastern Virginia in 1974 ― and solutions to addressing the negative impacts of the invasive fish. The Merc reports,
This reimbursable grant will support the expansion, modernization of equipment and storage space with a new blast freezer in the company’s existing processing facility in Gloucester County. Once complete, Sea Farms will purchase more blue catfish from local watermen, which supports economic growth and helps to remove the invasive species from Virginia waterways.”
National Fisherman’s story Virginia funds expansion of blue catfish commercial fishery explains the reasons why Sea Farms applied for the grant as well as the broader context of blue cats in the nationwide market:
The Virginia blue catfish quickly spread throughout the Bay’s watershed into nearly every major tributary and are now being seen in North Carolina waters too. Blue catfish eat shad, herring, striped bass, menhaden, clams and blue crabs, and there is now concern that the large catfish population is having a detrimental impact on the populations of these species.
And while the processing grant will help reduce the “bottleneck for commercial sales,” according to Virginia Del. Keith Hodges, R-68, the National Fisherman story explains that the farmed blue cats dominate in the broader market.
Virginia Seafood is a huge fan of blue catfish and regularly promotes recipes as shown below.
