The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is taking applications for grants that will help expand blue catfish fishing and processing in the state.
Gloucester and Mathews counties are among localities in the Rural Coastal Virginia Community Enhancement Authority, which will be given priority. Applications for the Governor’s Blue Catfish Processing, Flash Freezing, and Infrastructure Grant Program are accepted through Nov. 20.
Introduced several decades ago, the blue catfish is an invasive species that has been documented in all of Virginia’s tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay, according to a news release from the state agency. They eat shad, herring, striped bass, menhaden, clams and blue crabs, and there is concern that large catfish populations pose a detrimental impact on the populations of these species, the release said.
The Blue Catfish Processing, Flash Freezing, and Infrastructure Grant Program legislation and funding proposals were patroned by State Sen. Rich...