More Blue Catfish Vs. Blue Crabs

Fishy Fridays

Weekly spotlight on fisheries science journal articles

 

Jeff Kopaska
AFS Executive Director
jkopaska@fisheries.org

Today’s paper caught my attention for a couple of reasons. One, I read a separate blue crab/Blue Catfish article a couple weeks ago. Two, one of my staff was at a family gathering recently, and indicated they were asked if the Chesapeake Bay blue crab fishery was going to be shut down – they apparently were supposed to know the answer because they are involved in fisheries! Caroline’s answer was, if you want to do something, go catch some Blue Catfish – classic! Today’s paper looks at a variety of factors that influence Blue Catfish diets – geographic predator/prey overlap, temperature, salinity, time of year, and more. All of these impact what they are eating, and therefor how many blue crabs are consumed. Over half of Blue Catfish had blue crabs in their stomach samples, and the relative size of both catfish and crabs influenced prey consumption patterns. There are certainly other factors affecting blue crab populations, but the impact of Blue Catfish on juvenile blue crab populations cannot be overlooked.  Enjoy!

Predation impacts of invasive Blue Catfish on blue crabs in estuarine environments (open access)