Blue Catfish Watch Chesapeake Bay
Show us your blue catfish catch! Join the citizen science effort coordinated by researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center to help track the current distribution and the spread of the non-native blue catfish into the upper Chesapeake Bay and into Delaware Bay and the Delaware River. Knowing where and when these catfish are being caught is an important part of understanding their impact on the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay ecosystems.
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matt.ogburn
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Help us collect data by uploading photos of blue catfish that you or others catch. Your photos should be of live catfish and will be most helpful if they show a good side-view of the fish. Note that Project Noah does not allow "Trophy Fish" photos, so we ask that you submit photos without people in them. Also record the date, the location where you caught the fish (be as specific as possible including GPS coordinates if you have them), and the length of the fish. If you catch a blue catfish in the Patuxent River with a pink tag near the dorsal fin, please release it back into the water – it is one of our tagged catfish. Remember that it is illegal in Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware to transport and release live blue catfish. For identification: Blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) have a bluish-gray body and a deeply forked tail. Unlike channel catfish, they do not have spots on their body. One feature that distinguishes blue catfish from other catfishes is the prominent straight edge on their anal fin; other catfishes have a rounded anal fin. See linked website for identification photos.