The coastal Delaware restaurants of SoDel Concepts are doing their part to help reduce the population of wild blue catfish in the Chesapeake Bay.
Throughout the month of May, the restaurants will feature the catfish in various preparations. While delicious to eat, the omnivorous fish – which is non-native to the bay – threatens the native species, according to the Chesapeake Bay office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“This is a local issue that’s really hitting home,” said Ronnie Burkle, director of operations for SoDel Concepts. “Without the help of restaurants in the Delmarva area – and the consumers – the blue catfish could become the only fish available in the Chesapeake Bay in the future These catfish are extremely aggressive – they eat anything that’s in their path, from plant life to animal life.”
Native to the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio river basins, blue catfish were introduced into the James, Rappahannock, and York rivers in Virginia during the 1970s and 1980s as a new recreational fishery. They quickly spread throughout the bay into nearly every major tributary. Highly reproductive, they can live for more than 20 years. There are few natural predators.
“As a restaurant group, we’re able to do our small part to help stem this problem simply by buying blue catfish from local fisheries and featuring it on our menus, ” Burkle said. “It’s great fried or blackened.”
Doug Ruley, corporate chef for the restaurant group, agreed. “It’s really delicious and fits well on all our SoDel Concept restaurants’ menus. We feel good about serving up wild blue catfish caught in the Chesapeake Bay. It helps us be an environmentally conscious business. We’re introducing our customers to a wonderful alternative to imported catfish as well as letting them know about this serious problem.”
