The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill to tackle the problem of invasive blue catfish in the Chesapeake Bay, and two members of Congress from Maryland helped lead the charge.
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined Rep. Sarah Elfreth (MD-03) and Rep. Rob Wittman (VA-01) to recognize the House passage of the Mitigation Action and Waterman Support (MAWS) Act. The bipartisan legislation was introduced last July and would establish a pilot program in the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office to help create a market for Chesapeake Bay blue catfish in the pet and animal food industries. The effort is meant to take millions of pounds of the harmful fish out of the Bay and its waterways.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, would give grants to pet and animal food manufacturers as incentive to catch blue catfish, and NOAA would also establish the transportation, processing, and manufacturing structures for a long-term market. This pilot program would last for two years, during which NOAA would collect data on the ecological and economic impacts of the program. The agency would then report the best practices, lessons learned, and recommendations to Congress.
“The Chesapeake Bay is the beating heart of Maryland, and invasive blue catfish threaten the very ecosystems and communities that the watershed sustains,” Hoyer said, an original cosponsor of the MAWS Act. “I was proud to join my friend Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth on the MAWS Act and help secure passage of this vital legislation to combat blue catfish and protect our beloved Bay.”
“With House passage of the MAWS Act, we are one step closer to creating new opportunities in a growing market for blue catfish, which pose a direct ecological and economic threat to the Chesapeake Bay,” Elfreth said. “While we can all do our part and order blue catfish when we see it on a menu, this is not a problem that we alone can eat our way out of. That’s why we need bipartisan, innovative solutions, like the MAWS Act, that strengthen our local economy and preserve the health of the Bay. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to get this legislation past the finish line.”
“The MAWS Act will facilitate a new market for invasive blue catfish — protecting the biodiversity of the Chesapeake Bay,” Wittman said. “I am pleased that the House has passed this legislation, and I look forward to seeing it advance to the Senate. Preserving the health of the Bay remains one of my top priorities, and I am proud to have joined Congresswoman Elfreth in leading this critical legislation.”
This is not the first pilot program that attempts to control and reduce the blue catfish population in the Chesapeake Bay. In February 2025, Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources launched the Blue Catfish For-Hire/Commercial Pilot Program, and relaxed prohibitions on finfish trotlines through the Mid-and Lower-Bay Finfish Trotline Pilot Program. The bill advanced on Tuesday, however, is a multi-state bipartisan effort that succeeded at the national level. Hoyer and Elfreth are Democrats from Maryland and Wittman is a Republican from Virginia who has supported Elfreth’s Chesapeake Bay efforts since she joined Congress.
Blue catfish harm biodiversity in the Bay and cause serious economic damage to Maryland and Virginia’s seafood industries. They are the most abundant biomass in the Chesapeake Bay. They are safe and nutritious for humans to eat, but there is rule in place redirecting inspection of this species to the USDA, unlike every other fish that is inspected through the FDA. This is making it difficult for waterman to sell enough blue catfish to combat the rapidly growing population.
The MAWS Act now moves to the Senate for further consideration. The full bill text is available here.
