ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A Maryland Congresswoman is proposing turning invasive catfish into meals in your furry pals.
Here is the deal:
Rep. Sarah Elfreth represents Maryland’s Third District, which incorporates Annapolis, Anne Arundel and Howard Counties. She says it’s a bipartisan answer to a bipartisan downside.
The problem right here is an invasive species—the blue catfish—and the proposed invoice would pay pet meals makers and seafood processors to primarily clear up the Chesapeake Bay by turning the catfish into cat and pet food.
“There’s some fairly dangerous federal pink tape relating to processing blue catfish,” Elfreth defined. “Now, we have tried for years to repair that however have not gotten wherever – and that is the place we landed on this artistic answer.”
Elfreth’s invoice, named the ‘‘Mitigation Motion and Watermen Assist Act of 2025’’ or the ‘‘MAWS Act of 2025,” is a three-year initiative that may put aside $6 million—$2 million per 12 months—to pay seafood processors and pet meals makers to seize thousands and thousands of kilos of invasive blue catfish from the bay and switch it into pet meals.
It is a pilot program between 2027 and 2029 with the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) since they’re hoping it could possibly be expanded out throughout the nation to cope with invasive species in different waterways like carp within the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers.
Dig deeper:
Invasive blue catfish are one of many causes bushels of blue crabs are so costly recently.
“And let’s be actual, the market is not fairly there for human consumption,” Elfreth stated. “I order blue catfish each time I see it on a menu and native eating places are doing a wonderful job that includes it, however it is a thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of pound downside within the Bay so we want a sooner answer than simply human consumption.”
The thought has already acquired help from the Pet Meals Institute – which represents main cat and pet food makers within the U.S. like Blue Buffalo and Purina.
