CALIFORNIA, Md. — The Chesapeake Bay is renowned for its beautiful scenery and biological diversity of plants and animals. However, there’s a creature prowling the waters of Maryland’s aquatic systems threatening this biodiversity. Like many invasives, it’s not immediately apparent that it’s harmful or that it doesn’t belong, and most would assume it is just another harmless creature.
But they would assuredly be wrong.
Swimming on the sandy bottom of the Patuxent is a fish that swallows anything that it can fit in its mouth, lurking in search of its next victim. That creature is the blue catfish.
They may seem like harmless whiskered bottom-feeders, but have quickly become one of the most invasive threats to Maryland’s waterways and have grown into a dominant predator across the region. It feeds indiscriminately on native species such as blue crab, white perch, American eels, and essentially anything else it can fit into its mouth…